Ruby Slippers: Slightly Off Kilter AU
by SumDumMuffin
Summary: How does a model teacher react to a love confession from her best student? How does a young girl who lost her mother see the perfect mentor?
1. The Cultural Festival

I do not own RWBY or any of these characters: they are creations of Roosterteeth and the magnificent Monty Oum, may he rest in peace.

Rated M for violence, language, themes of depression and suicide, and sexual humor.

This is primarily a rewrite of the series to facilitate a romance between Ruby and Glynda, but there are side pairings and non-romantic themes as well, and there's a fair amount of canon divergence and embellishment.

I guarantee no expertise of or even basic correct knowledge of romance, teaching, anxieties of middle-aged women, maid cafes, or Ruby's canonical family history.

Originally posted on Ao3.

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

"This is the third time this week, Ms. Rose."

Glynda tapped the desk in front of a shorter girl, an anxious red-haired student sitting down and looking guilty. Detention was always an unpleasant affair.

The classroom was empty, and the aves of twilight peaked through the partially closed blinds. This was detention hour, and Glynda would have preferred to be spending it doing any number of other, more interesting things. But if a student was struggling, it was her proud duty to give that student as much extra attention as they needed to succeed.

Ms. Rose in question poked her fingers together and pouted at the ground. Was she even taking this seriously? Glynda once again noted that her student's huge crimson cloak was not part of school uniform regulations, and that she wasn't supposed to carry her (showy, distracting) weapon to class, even if it was folded up. Did she take _anything_ seriously?

"Why is it so hard for you to both complete your assignments correctly _and_ turn in your assignments on time?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Goodwitch." Ruby shirked under Glynda's gaze.

Glynda smiled in spite of herself. It really should be Mz, but Ruby never listened to her when Glynda tried to correct her. It was a little flattering, she was embarrassed to admit.

Ruby tilted her head down and looked up with her eyes. "I've been a bad girl, Ms. Goodwitch. I'm sorry."

Glynda turned to the wall and hoped her blush didn't show. Ms. Rose couldn't possibly know how that sounded, it wasn't her fault. And what kind of teacher interpreted that that way anyway?

Certainly not any decent teacher, and certainly not Glynda Goodwitch. She prided herself on being an excellent teacher, which was why she had her student's files in front of her. She had done some investigating to try to find the heart of the matter, because nothing else she did seemed to get through to the Rose girl.

Glynda ruffled through her files. "You've performed exceptionally in every other class you have, you're first in your class at combat, and your previous school has nothing but good things to say about you," She pushed her glasses up her nose idly.

Ruby never broke eye contact during the previous sentence, and she inhaled sharply. Damn, she was more upset than Glynda counted on. Glynda decided to back off a little.

"Look, I'm sorry if that sounded harsh," Glynda said, "But I'm only angry because I care about you."

Ruby looked at the floor and tried to discreetly hide her face in her cloak, but Glynda knew what that was. Guilt. Damnit, that wasn't what Glynda had been trying to inspire.

"Hey, now," Glynda put a hand out to Ruby's shoulder. Ruby didn't look up. Crap.

Glynda cleared her throat. "I mean to say that you've been performing well in everything else you do. You're an amazing student, Ruby, and you have the potential to be amazing in my class, and it's clear you'll make a great huntress one day."

That got through to her. Ruby looked up and beamed, positively beamed. "R-really?" she smiled at Glynda, bashful, then at the ground, embarassed. "You're just saying that..."

"No, I really mean it." Glynda smiled and pulled her hand back to ruffle through Ms. Rose's files again.

"So what I don't understand," Glynda said as delicately as she could, "Is why you're struggling in Aura Manifestation 101 when everything else seems to come so easily to you? Is it the subject matter? I know that the battlefield and the classroom are very different environments and that can throw people off."

That was a stretch though. By all means if Ruby could manifest her aura in a hectic battlefield, with her life on the line, while being attacked by horrifying eldritch monsters, she should be able to do so in a quite, well-lit air-conditioned classroom under no time limit and only her grade on the line.

Ruby shuffled a bit, doing something adorable with her thumbs, but she stayed silent.

"Or is it my teaching style?" Glynda didn't mean for any hurt to creep into her tone. It was almost inconceivable that, after... however many decades she was willing to admit having been a teacher, that her teaching style would completely _fail_ to get through to a student.

Ruby looked distraught. "No! No, you're an excellent teacher, Ms. Goodwitch. It's not your fault..."

That was profoundly unhelpful, and completely untrue. Of course it was her fault. Something she had done had caused Ruby to start failing her class, and Glynda's negligence had meant that Ruby was still failing her class, and, right now, Glynda failing to discern precisely what she had done wrong meant that Ruby would continue to fail her class. And Aura Manifestation was a prerequisite for every other Aura and magic related class at Beacon, so this was putting her student's entire academic future in jeopardy.

The teacher frowned. Ruby was being obstinate, and nothing about this situation made sense. So, if Ruby didn't hate the class, and she understood the material, and she didn't have any problem with the teaching style, what was the problem? Glynda hoped she was wrong but her only conclusion was that this was personal in some way. And she really shouldn't take it out on her student but there was only so much she could take.

"So then _why,_ Ms. Rose?" Glynda's voice was a little louder than it should have been. "Why are you failing my class?"

Ruby didn't' say anything. She actively tried to avoid eye contact and her fidgeting got worse. She started hyperventilating, and Glynda could tell that bringing her own face closer was making things worse but she would get to the bottom of this somehow.

"For Dust's sake!" said a bubbly, annoyed voice from the hallway. Everyone really should have gone to their dorms by now, Glynda thought, idly, but another student appeared, slamming the classroom door open, and a tall, well-built blond girl with a magnificent mane of blonde hair waltzed into the room. Yang Xiao-Long, the problem student's elder sister. Glynda had pondered the possibility that Ruby's poor performance was a result of her sister being a poor role-model, but Yang was a decent student, if a little rambunctious, and never had any discipline problems despite her casual flaunting of authority which, as the records revealed, had never actually verged into subordination. Though technically, interrupting another student's detention might cross that line.

"Yang, what are you doing here?" squeaked Ruby.

The blonde ignored her half-sister. "You want to know why she's failing your class?" she said to Glynda.

Glynda didn't get the chance to speak, but she was sure her expression said yes.

Ruby's expression, however, was complete horror. "Yang, don't you dare-"

"It's 'cause she has a crush on you." Yang folded her arms and nodded, like a detective who just solved the case of the century. Yang even pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Glynda may have expected a bad pun if she wasn't too busy being shocked out of her mind.

Like seriously. What?

"Is-" Glynda lilted, turning to Ruby. The girl was red enough to match her namesake and was seemingly paralyzed in her chair. Glynda could sympathize. "Is this true, Ms. Rose?"

Suddenly Ruby was a blur, a blur that was accosting their new arrival. "Oh my Dust Yang that was a secret you monster!"

Suddenly everything made so much sense. All the excuses to stay late, all the failed assignments, the acting out in class. The blushing, the apprehension, the hyperventilating when Glynda got near, the lack of eye contact- the innuendos! They were deliberate! Glynda made up for two months worth of embarrassment with a searing in her cheeks that almost made her eyes water, because it turned out she was completely justified in thinking they were weirdly personal - Holy Dust.

Aaaand the girls were fighting. Like, with their weapons. Glynda figured she should probably stop them from doing that.

Glynda took a deep breath. She was a veteran, with multiple decades of teaching under her belt after an even more lucrative hunting career. She could handle something as simple as a blood duel to the death among teenagers. Glynda waved her riding crop- (Oh Dust, she used that on Ruby so many times- not in that way, of course, just her wrists, she'd never- but if Ruby knew about S&M that just made things a whole level of awkward. But she was definitely too young to know about that, Glynda reasoned, and the tingling in her, let's just say heart, was completely inappropriate)- and the two girls froze as if they were caught in mid air by invisible arms (which was pretty accurate), and pulled to opposite sides of the room. Purple runes appeared in the air as Glynda waved her arms and crop-wand in elaborate patterns, until the two teenagers were separated and had stopped trying to attack each other.

"Children," she said in her authoritative voice, "This was not a reason to fight. And even if it were, this is not the place to fight. Do you understand?"

The two girls nodded. Glynda put them down. They shuffled around awkwardly and neither of them made eye contact with each other or her.

Glynda cleared her throat again. She gave a small speech about the importance of forgiveness she'd memorized years ago as she tried to sort her thoughts. There was a lot to go over, and the few moments of trying parse it all were largely unsuccessful, but by the end of the speech, after the girls nodded in assumed understanding, Glynda thought she found a way to solve Ruby's particular problem.

"And Ms. Rose," she said, trying to soften her voice, "If you want to impress me, you'd do a better job by just doing well in class. I'll forgive you for these last few transgressions if you do."

Ruby stood up straight. She saluted and smiled and blushed, "Yes Ma'am, I will! Thank you, Ma'am!"

And she left, though Glynda spent the night hovering between being too awkward to think about the whole situation and trying to sort out her feelings about it.

* * *

And so Ruby made good on her promise. Almost immediately, she started turning homework in, correctly and on time. She started acing tests. She acted out less in class, instead asking clarifying questions and in turn volunteering to answer questions Glynda would occasionally pose to the room.

Ruby became Glynda's best student, which was good but also a little awkward. By all means, Glynda would give special attention to her best students, would acknowledge any work done above and beyond what was expected, would make special arrangements for the benefit of their education, no matter what their history. She tried to imagine what would have happened if Ruby never revealed she had a crush on her. Why, of course Glynda would agree to meet with her, alone, in her study, to talk about her lesson plans, without a thought, and it wouldn't be awkward. Of course she'd go over material her student didn't think she understood. And of course she'd agree to come over there, right behind Ruby's chair, and take a look at a section of the textbook that needed further scrutiny...

And, if it had been someone she didn't know had a crush on her, Glynda wouldn't feel awkward when she realized she was leaning way too close over her student trying to read that textbook, her arms on either side of Ruby's shoulders, almost close enough to brush in the event of errant shuffling, her face close enough to smell Ruby's hair-

Ruby looked up, a soft smile on her face and a tint of red on her cheeks. Glynda pulled her arms to her side, and stood up straight, and cleared her throat and pushed her glasses up her nose.

She realized her shirt hadn't been completely buttoned (she normally dressed that way, so why would she change for a random student?), and Ruby may have caught a face full of cleavage, if she looked backwards during that little lesson. Which Glynda never would have assumed would have happened if she didn't know Ruby felt that way about her- and if some other individual did, what would it matter? It was just a wardrobe malfunction.

"Is something wrong, teacher?" asked Ruby, seeming to be completely innocent.

Glynda's throat was always dry around Ruby these days it seemed. "No, I just- I think maybe I should pull up a chair so we can do this formally, don't you think?"

And Ruby acted as if nothing was wrong, but what gave her away was the giddy smile and tinted cheeks that painted every young lovestruck fool.

* * *

Glynda spent a lot of time wondering what it was her pupil saw in her. Glynda was self-aware enough to know she was reasonably attractive, and she was popular among men and women her age on the few occasions she went out, usually with Ozpin or- well, mostly just with Ozpin, though she had contact with other agents in the conspiracy of good- but that was another story. Anyway, also, in the past there were a few students who had crushes on her, mostly out of some misconfiguring of authority or just plain reflexive lust; those usually went away as soon as said students discovered boys and girls their own age. None of them had been meaningfully attracted to her as a person. And even if Glynda looked at most half her real age, that was still getting up there (though Glynda hated to admit it), so what was such a young person like Ruby seeing in someone like her? People understood people around their own age the best, so by all reason Ruby should have found a greater connection with one of the other students, someone who watched the same cartoons and listened to the same music and had the same teenage existential crisis's as her. It's not like they even had any conversations about their personal lives- oh, well, sometimes during those extra study sessions, yes, but- wait, actually, that was kind of often. Damn.

At some point Ruby revealed she still had that autograph Glynda gave to her; the first autograph of a huntress that wasn't related to her, she'd said, which Glynda suspected was a lie, or at least not the real reason Ruby guarded it so religiously. The adult wondered if maybe Ruby was just misinterpreting admiration; Glynda was a good huntress, and maybe Ruby just wanted to be her, rather than be involved with her romantically. And maybe she was conflating these feelings because she was so young. Glynda had made an excellent good impression, if she did say so herself; she'd saved the young huntresses life on that rooftop at least twice, and had used some of her most impressive spells during the subsequent wizard's duel. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding on Ruby's part.

But one day in class, Glynda gained some new insight into what Ruby thought of her.

"You did very good Ms. Rose," said Glynda as she handed back last week's tests. Ruby had gotten a perfect score, so, like any other student who did the same thing, she deserved praise. "An enviable effort."

Ruby positively beamed. "Thanks mom!"

Glynda stopped everything. She didn't' stumble, not even a little. The rest of the classroom, emanating from Ruby's desk, suddenly became silent, like the reverse of the ripples from dropping a pebble into a still pond.

"What?" asked Ruby, a little forcefully, a little confrontationally.

"You just called Mz. Goodwitch 'mom'," said Nora Valkyrie, with a little bit of humor.

"What, no~," stuttered Ruby, "I said 'Thanks man!', you know, like human (not in an anti-Faunus way, of course), or like 'hey man, how's it going?'" She put on a low voice affectation for that last part.

"No, you definitely called her 'mom'," said Weiss Schnee, sounding a little more annoyed than usual.

Glynda cleared her throat. It didn't' take too long to regain her composure. "Ms. Rose, do you see me as some sort of mother figure?"

"What, psh, noo~" squeaked Ruby. Her face reddened though, and she started fidgeting. Glynda knew what that meant.

Glynda allowed a couple of Ruby's team-mates to get a jab in before she hushed the crowd. She successfully got the whole class to drop the issue and return to pretending to study while texting or whatever kids did these days did. Right before she started the days lecture, though, she couldn't resist a jab of her own.

"For what it's worth, I'm very proud of you," Glynda said, "My girl."

The class chuckled. Ruby sunk into her seat. Glynda felt a little bad, but if it had been someone else, who didn't have some teenage crush on her, she'd have teased them, so why treat Ruby differently, right? That was how she was going to handle this issue; by ignoring it until Ruby found some nice girl who suited her better.

But Dust, she hoped that last comment didn't count as flirting.

* * *

Armed with new information about Ruby's … matronly issues, Glynda made some discrete inquiries that never ventured into a breach of privacy; all lookups of public records, a short phone call with Qrow, under the pretense of academic concerns with his nieces (and which probably didn't blow his cover, Glynda reasoned), the sort of thing any concerned teacher would do for a student they were concerned about. She was just concerned. Yes.

So, Ruby's mother had died when she was very young. Glynda vaguely recalled being informed of that, years ago- Summer had been one of their agents, but Glynda hadn't known her personally. Ruby was raised by her sister, a father who became despondent in grief, and an uncle who- and she meant no offense by this; it was only a summation of his skills, seemed more comfortable around weapons than children. And he was always drunk, but whatever. Qrow tried his best, of course, and he was a good man at heart, but Glynda wondered if maybe he should have called in the cavalry on raising a young, grieving girl.

What this meant was that Ruby was looking for a female role-model, and it looked like Glynda was the best actor for that role, what with the life-saving and the currently teaching her and all. And if that was the case, it was Glynda's duty to fill that void in one of her student's lives as best as she could. Any other student, it'd be no problem. So there was no reason it should be any different with Ruby Rose, who had a crush on her.

Which meant that of course she'd say yes if her best student, who idolized her as a role model, asked a personal favor, but not too personal, just a little off-hours interaction, that didn't really have anything to do with schoolwork but was still tangentially associated with the school so it wasn't, like, inappropriate to bring up.

Ruby knocked on her office door during office hours one night and stepped in at Glynda's bidding, her hands behind her back and her body stiff, rocking on her heels and swinging back and forth on her hips like the worlds most socially awkward pendulum.

"Hey teach- Glynda," said Ruby. She seemed nervous. "So this Friday is the cultural festival..."

Glynda briefly looked up from the stack of papers she was grading. She smiled, hopefully goodnaturedly, "Of course. Everyone's been working their hardest, and I know you have been too." Aha, like she herself hadn't forgotten about it until this week, like everybody else.

"So my homeroom's doing a cafe and," Ruby but her lip and broke eye contact for an iota. "And I'd be super-honored if you'd come," she pulled a piece of paper out from behind her, a little arts-and-crafts project, complete with glitter and hearts, and she held it at arm's length, with a slight bow of her head, "Here's a coupon for a free meal."

Glynda put down her pen and refreshed her smile. She took the coupon from Ruby's hand, trying not to read into how Ruby seemed to deliberately avoid skin contact. "Of course I'll be there," she said. She cleared her throat and went into lecture mode briefly. "As a high ranking administrator I am of course required to attend, but I'll make it a point to visit your booth in particular."

And that seemed to make Ruby's day. Glynda wouldn't feel confident in saying that she'd never seen Ruby so happy, but the young huntress smiled from ear to ear and had to stop herself from literally bouncing between her walls with her semblance and she composed herself admirably with a breath and a bow and a formal statement of gratitude and only devolved into skipping when she was almost out of eyeshot.

Glynda found herself exited too, because her student's happiness was her happiness. Yes.

* * *

It turned out it was a maid cafe. It figured, though; 80% of the school was doing a 'maid' something or other. Seeing Jaune and Pyrrha dueling in a Maid Gladiator Ring was surprisingly entertaining, and Team CFVY's Maid Weapon Repair course was very informative but seemed to be targeted towards two disparate demographics.

But Glynda cleared an hour and a half during the day to get to team RWBY's little cafe and, when she got there, Yang, in an outfit less revealing but somehow more suggestive than her usual wardrobe, pulled her out of the line ahead of a couple other people and sat her down at an empty booth by the window and told her her waitress would be there shortly to take her order.

Obviously, the waitress was Ruby. Her maid costume was a little scandalous, and the way she blushed and twittered- uncharacteristically clumsy- as she walked up to Glynda only accentuated the aura of- well, you know what maids connotate.

"H-hello, valued customer!" she said with a botched curtsy. "Actually, uh, if you'd like me to call you anything...?"

"Call me something?" Glynda thought she'd try to think of magic theorems or something, to keep her thoughts from wandering someplace innapropriate.

"Uh," began Ruby. She poked her fingers together. "You know, as part of the service? 'Master' a popular request. So is 'Mistress'..."

Glynda's heart jumped into her throat at that, stopping her ears and half of her brain. That was _unbelievably_ inappropriate, though of course Ruby probably didn't know that, but still. Glynda took a breath. Well, she supposed it wasn't inappropriate for normal people; it was simply the female version of 'master', right? And that's what maids do, work for people who were their master, and some of the masters were female and thus called 'mistress'? That particular word only had salacious connotations in a line of interests that a child shouldn't know. So Glynda decided she was overreacting to a simple coincidence.

"'Mistress' will suffice," said Glynda. After all, that was normal, right? Probably all the female customers asked that. It wasn't awkward at all.

"Alright, Mistress," Ruby bowed, seeming to have gained confidence. She held out a small sheet of paper to the teacher. "Here's the menu, and, uh, if you have a coupon or something...?"

Glynda smile slightly. This was part of the game, wasn't it? Ruby knew she had a coupon, but Glynda still had to present it, to show she held onto it and that it was important to her, personally. She'd kept it in her purse since Ruby had given it to her. (Hopefully Ruby wouldn't' read into that or anything).

But as she was served a meal that looked three times as well-prepared as the other patrons and in the way Ruby kept asking her if there was anything, _anything_ (she couldn't know how inappropriate that sounded, right?) she could do to make her experience better, Glynda figured that there was definitely something more at work, here, and that she couldn't ignore it any more.

"Excuse me, waitress?" said Glynda, eventually.

"Yes Mistress?" Ruby squeaked, appearing right next to her in a petaled vortex.

"Would you mind taking a seat for a moment?" Glynda gestured to the seat opposite her's. (Also, why was her booth the only one with an extra chair?)

Ruby complied. Her mouth was in some sort of expression where she was smushing her lips together, like she didn't' trust herself to speak.

Glynda took a deep breath. Welp. How was she going to go about this?

"Ruby," she began, "You- you know I'm over three times your age, right?"

Ruby smiled and lightly rested her hand on Glynda's. "Is that supposed to make you less attractive?"

Glynda cleared her throat. Apparently her heart had tried to jump into it again.

"You're my student. I'm responsible for you," Glynda parsed.

"And I love that-"

"-And that means," Glynda interrupted, "That I can't be... intimate with someone I'm directly, you know, overseeing. It's a clear abuse of power, and it's creepy, and- and the things people will say..."

Ruby tilted her head. "Intimate? You mean-"

Glynda decided she needed to rush this along. "And you're only 15, Ruby. With me being- being as old as I am, that's a felony, you are aware, right?"

Ruby leaned backwards and flailed her hands, "Whoa, wait. I never said anything about us having sex-"

"Keep your voice down!" Glynda hissed. At least three other tables stopped their conversations to stare at them.

Ruby clapped her hands over her mouth.

"You're- you're not," parsed Glynda, "Attracted to me?" She didn't dare try to knowledge the possibility that the idea might have disappointed her.

Ruby almost fell out of her chair. Once she recovered she leaned across the tables, glancing sideways every so often. "I am," she whispered, "But that's not the only thing right?"

Glynda found herself leaning in, closer than she'd ever thought she'd dare, trying to get close enough to drown out the damnable pounding of her heart in her throat and the ringing in her ears and the stinging heat in her cheeks and for some reason she lost her peripheral vision but maybe that was because her glasses were fogging up.

"I mean," Ruby whispered, pausing to shoot an apprehensive grin and blink way more than necessary.

"Glynda," She breathed the name, with understated, desperate longing, "We could still be... abstractly intimate, right? Is it wrong for me to tell you I'm in love with you?"

Glynda... had no idea how nor any capability to respond to that.

"So uh," Ruby bit her lip, her voice was barely audible now, "Would you consider it? Just- just a little date, with me?"

Time seemed to stand still, the entire room slowed down and blue-shifted and Glynda could look everywhere in the room and process exactly what was happening, could focus on every thunderous beat of her heart through her body, could feel every red-hot pinprick of the scorching in her cheeks, but there was only one thing she could focus on right now -and possibly for the rest of eternity. She could only assume it was the same for Ruby, this surreal parallel dimension Ruby's words seemed to have pulled them into. It had been years since she'd been in anything even close to this situation, and part of her, a part she didn't want to acknowledge, wanted to savor it- especially since there was only one way she could respond.

Glynda closed her eyes and took a breath. She heard Ruby do the same. After another eternity Glynda found she had the energy to move her eyelids, and found her throat responsive enough to speak.

"My answer is no," whispered Glynda, "I – I cannot. Someone in my position- this is the only outcome, you must understand?"

Ruby's face was unreadable, but she nodded almost imperceptibly.

"But that doesn't mean I won't- I won't continue to fulfill my obligation as a teacher, right?" Glynda leaned back to normal and forced a smile, and raised her voice a bit back to normal. "You are my best student, after all, and that means a lot to me. So you must understand. I- I can't accept."

Ruby seemed to fall out of slow motion, into, as Glynda was relieved to see, an expression that seemed to be right on the happy edge of neutral. Way better than completely devastated, which was what Glynda would have expected and what she had feared.

"I understand," Ruby said, calmly, "And, for what it's worth, you're the best teacher I've ever had."

It was worth a lot, Glynda said. Or thought she said.

Ruby left Glynda alone after that. When it was time to leave Blake came by to clean up her plate, in an outfit that included fake dog ears, Glynda noted, which considering what she knew of Blake's circumstance was probably some level of irony that she was not prepared to interpret at the moment, what with her heart not having got the memo that this was all resolved. It was still drumming in her ribcage, echoing in her ears.

And so Glynda fulfilled her role as teacher as best she could during the festival, though she feared she may not have given the rest of her students as much attention as they deserved. She checked out booths and tried other food but dodged prof. Oobleck and prof. Port when she chanced upon them, because teachers were supposed to be less needy than students and she figured they wouldn't mind not seeing her for the rest of today.

And after the festival she took a rain check on her usual activity- Ozpin's debrief of the secret war and the afterwards reminiscences upon past lives- to retire to her study and cogitate. It'd been a long time since someone had said they loved her, even if today's was most definitely from a place of conflated feelings and – was it wrong to think of Ruby as too immature to know what that really meant?

But she wouldn't dwell on it. She was a teacher- the answer was always no- and she had a role to fill. One that had no room for- for whatever Ruby asked of her that afternoon.

* * *

.

.

.

"So that's that, huh Rubaby?" said Yang as she put a hand on Ruby's shoulder that turned into a bear-hug. "It's okay, you'll move on."

But Ruby just smiled forlornly. "I still have a few more years to change her mind, though, right?"

Yang groaned.


	2. The Homecoming Dance

I guarantee no expertise or even basic knowledge of romance, why we love, weaponry, makeup, school dances, dance etiquette, dance politics, dancing, detention, malls, or perfume. Probably some other stuff too.

However, I am trying to be as sensitive as possible about depression, abandonment, and suicidal thoughts. I do not mean to offend.

* * *

\- OOO -

* * *

Ruby had to grow up young. That's what happens when your mom dies when when you're five.

At first she didn't believe Summer was really, truly, forever gone - certainly not forever, and certainly without even saying goodbye- and then Ruby could do nothing but cry and plead the heavens, and after that she started hating Summer and she stopped talking to everyone and took to dressing almost exclusively in red, the color of death and mourning in Remnant. Sometimes people remarked on the walking funerary procession that was young Ruby.

By the time Ruby was seven, with the help of her sister and her uncle and the family dog and a new-found gift for weaponsmithing, she improved to the point where she was merely depressed, slightly antisocial, and -only a little bit she swore- latently suicidal. She kept the red cloak, though, to wear always. Maybe it was just shock. Maybe she thought she'd follow her mother to wherever she went away to, to ask her why she abandoned her without even a goodbye, or maybe just to scream her loss and anger at her mother. Maybe she saw all the other kids with their moms and how they got to hug and cuddle, how they got to be swaddled in a cradle of warmth and love and Ruby wondered why she couldn't have that, why her mom had to deny her a normal life, why her mom had to fucking abandon her? Had Ruby done something wrong? Was it her fault somehow?

But then Yang and uncle Qrow talked her out of those sorts of thoughts, mostly, and Ruby could smile again and be happy with her life and she tried to make up for her past life by being cheery all the time, by trying to make other people smile, and she was less depressed, no longer antisocial, and she didn't want to die anymore. Not usually, but, maybe, in a moment of weakness, occasionally.

Maybe that time on the roof of the dust store was one of those times; a reckless decision spurred by a suicidal depression she hadn't quite shed, and after a quick brawl and a brief chase and a dual with a orange-haired man with a tophat and a cane and a penchant for showmanship, Ruby ended up staring down a fiery magical death and she thought, heh, maybe she'd get to see mom again. She had closed her eyes and dreamed of a life after oblivion and only briefly regretted not being able to say goodbye to Yang and Qrow and Zwei and – and everyone else in her life-

And when she opened her eyes; she wasn't dead. It smelled like ozone and there were muted noises of a helibird and magic duels and in front of her was a huntress. Older, elegant, imperious, with blonde hair, adjusting her glasses idly as she shot missiles at the enemy aircraft. She was absolutely badass. Ruby was never more in awe in her life, and she thanked Dust someone was there to save her life.

So of course she didn't know what to say, so she asked for an autograph, and–

And it tuned out this particular huntress did not appreciate Ruby recklessly endangering her life. She made sure to point out all the foolish decisions and the reckless endangerment and, she begrudgingly admitted, Ruby's admirable bravery.

It was all true, the good and the bad, and while it felt good that someone validated her actions as heroic, the admonishment was embarrassing, and it made her feel like a child and feel like someone was looking out for her, and it was everything Ruby didn't have, everything Ruby wished she had, as she was growing up without a mom.

* * *

Ruby had to grow up young. Everyone else seemed to accept that, for a certain definition of 'accept'. So when she messed up, or when she did something stupid, or when she acted out because she couldn't deal with her anger or sadness or feelings of hopeless inability, Yang and Qrow and all these strange adults who made oblique references to Summer Rose when they spoke, they all accepted Ruby's mistakes with the assumption that Ruby did as well, they all forgave Ruby's indiscretions because nobody expected her to be perfect, and they all expected that Ruby would apologize and work to better herself, just like all the other adults did when they couldn't deal with their anger or sadness or hopeless inability. And it wasn't her fault, they always said, that she didn't have a mother, or that she had to grow up so young. Everyone accepted that, it seemed, except Ruby herself.

Ruby _hated_ that. She didn't know anything; did nobody care enough to teach her? She was acting out; was she really so insignificant that nobody seemed to be upset with her when she inconvenienced them? Was she so meaningless that when she almost died they didn't try their hardest to stop her? All this- a dead mom and an absent father and a responsibility too big for her and with no ability to cope- all this was all something she was supposed to figure out by herself but she couldn't, she just couldn't, and nobody even wanted to try to show her how.

And it's not like she just kept this inside. She confronted Yang and Qrow about it, several times, and she'd only got a tearful hug from Yang, because her half-sister was just as clueless as her. She got an even bigger hug (And a little bit of alcohol on her cloak) from her uncle Qrow, who had turned to the bottle so that he didn't have to deal with what Ruby was dealing with. Sometimes Zwei cheered her up, but sometimes his playful yappings only made Ruby more certain that nobody could understand what she was going through. On the occasions she saw her father he had the same questions. Why did this have to happen? How was he supposed to move on? Nobody had any answers, only coping mechanisms. Ruby's was combat training, she decided, but she could only distract herself with that for so long.

If this was what being treated like an adult was like- then it was lonely, and cruel, and nobody understood each other in a meaningful way, and nobody expected anything of her because they couldn't expect anything from themselves. Adulthood was walking blindfolded on a tightrope over an abyss of uncertainty and nobody even had a balance pole and your mom could just up and leave one day and get herself killed- so Ruby wished she never had to grow up. Other kids didn't have to until they were teenagers at least, even Yang had eight years of innocence, so why was she the exception? Why didn't Ruby get to have a real childhood?

Maybe if she had known other kids who'd lost a parent, she might have learned a better coping mechanism. At least she might not have felt so alone. So maybe other people would have hated being lectured by a complete stranger after they had to save their life, but for Ruby, seeing someone so confident try to help her was refreshing. Feeling like there was someone who had their life together who actually wanted to extend a hand to help a floundering little girl who'd been lost for what seemed like forever, that was an amazing feeling.

* * *

And as a direct result of endangering her life, Ruby achieved her dream of attending Beacon academy. She also met the woman she would fall in love with, so maybe the lesson here was that, Ruby would joke melancholically, that she'd get everything she'd want if she did whatever she wanted. She met her teammates; Yang, of course, she'd never get anywhere with her big sis protecting her. Or, she might rephrase, her sister would never let her go. There was also Weiss, the snooty heiress, and Blake, the quiet, brooding loner. She got along with Blake but Ruby felt like they never really connected, and Weiss was always looking down on everything. And sometimes Yang just drove her up the wall. And then there was Jaune and his team; they were nice, but they weren't exactly close. Ruby still felt alone, but since she had so many more people in her life she felt worse about it.

The school facilities were nice, though; the classrooms were great, the teachers were super cool, and the weapon facilities were amazing; she made sure to treat Crescent Rose to a full tune-up as soon as she had some free time. But soon the novelty faded and the sensation that she'd achieved her dream had been replaced by the realization that she was far, far from becoming a full blown huntress and had a mountain of ordeals to climb, and maybe it was all just too much for her. Maybe all the change and loneliness loomed too large ahead of her sometimes, and Ruby as a result sunk back into her dark pit of despair and doubt. It was like an old cloak, it seemed, though one that was less warm, one that strangled instead of embraced.

One day, two weeks into the school, nobody seemed to understand her and classes had gotten hard and life just seemed a little pointless and Ruby wondered why she even got into Beacon in the first place. She'd skipped two years; that was two years of teaching she'd never gotten, two years of material she didn't know, two years of training she didn't have, two years of life she'd never experienced. Maybe granting Ruby her wish wasn't as much a kindness as Ozpin believed.

And- what if couldn't do it? Like, what if she literally wasn't capable of being a huntress?

And what if Ruby didn't even deserve to make it this far? What if this was all a mistake, and Ruby just got by on dumb luck and the fact that other people couldn't see how incompetent she really was...

Maybe it was all a fluke. Maybe she should call it quits while she was ahead.

One or more of those thoughts was probably to blame for that missed assignment for Aura manifestation.

Yang punched her shoulder and told her it was ok, these thing's happened. Weiss harrumphed and said she hoped Ruby was smart enough to pass the test with that attitude, and Blake just nodded; some things were more important, Blake said. Nobody blamed her. Nobody told her to study more, or try harder, or be a better person.

Ruby didn't buy any of it; she knew she should have done her homework, a better person would have. Studying was the whole point of school; she should be taking things more seriously.

So she went to class and just sat with her hands in her lap and her face tilted down and her cheeks burning hot from failure that threatened to crawl into her eyes and bleed out into tears and nothing happened to her; she'd failed and there were no consequences. This was like every time before, every understanding person in her life who didn't' care enough to listen to her cries for help.

And then Ms. Goodwitch asked her to stay after class. And Ruby looked up and nodded solemnly. She didn't pay attention to the lecture.

And at the end of class, right as the bell rang, Ms. Goodwitch dismissed the class and started writing at her desk. Grading homework, probably, the homework Ruby didn't turn in.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you, Ms. Rose," she said, without looking up from her desk.

Ruby squeaked and stepped back into the classroom. Once it had emptied, Ruby got the nerve to speak.

"This is about the homework, right?" asked Ruby.

"That is correct," Glynda said from her desk. She graded three pages before she answered. "Homework is expected to be done. That's how you learn, you know."

Ruby muttered a nervous "Yeah."

And Glynda looked up, adjusting her glasses. "So when I assign homework, I truly think it's for the best that you do it, you understand? And I know you have it in you to do well in this course."

"Y-Yes ma'am."

Glynda took her hand off her glasses and looked back down at her papers. "Now don't let it happen again."

"Of course, ma'am," Ruby said. She walked away, smiling at the ground and tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear. She resolved to do better.

That lasted exactly two days.

* * *

Three missing assignments later, Ruby had her first detention, and the first realization of how attractive her Aura Manifestation teacher was.

Her first detention, for two hours at the end of the day, Ruby returned to her Aura manifestation classroom, a little rushed, a lot embarrassed, and vaguely excited for a reason she couldn't explain.

Ms. Goodwitch was there before her. She was dressed up like she was during the day, in these amazing high-wasted pencil skirts and button down shirts that she liked to keep a couple buttons on undone, and a fancy cape that looked like tendrils of purple fog. They complimented the braid of her hair and the gold cats-eye glasses the teacher would occasionally push up the bridge of her nose. Ruby smiled involuntarily when she arrived.

"Ms Rose," Ms. Goodwitch said, imperiously, dismissively, tapping her crop against the table, "I hope you're not going to be a problem in my class?"

"N-no ma'am," lied Ruby.

Ms. Goodwitch seemed to buy that answer, though. She walked around a desk where a packet of papers lay, in perfect alignment. "Do you know why you're here?"

Ruby poked her fingers together. "Because I've been a bad girl?" she teased.

Ms. Goodwitch turned to the wall and cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses with her free hand. "Y-you've not learned the material from the last two weeks. By the end of the night, you will have."

Ms. Goodwitch beckoned to the packet of paper, a make-up assignment Ruby was to complete. Ruby sat down at the desk and her teacher would pace around the room as Ruby wrote, heels clacking on the floor. Occasionally, and Ruby secretly treasured these moments, Ms. Goodwitch would walk right besides her and place an arm on her desk to lean on as she scrutinized Ruby's work.

Not that watching her imperiously was all she did. Whenever Ruby had a question, Ms. Goodwitch was all to happy to answer it, And when Ruby hesitated too long on a problem, Ms. Goodwitch would, without even being prompted, ask if Ruby needed some help, and offer some tips. She was an amazing teacher.

"Of course I am," Ms. Goodwitch would say, beaming at the wall, "I've worked hard to be a good teacher, and it's something I pride myself on." Her smile was infectious, and every time it appeared on her teacher's face, Ruby would take the time to admire not just the smile, but every detail, every contour of her face, the way a few strands of her curly blond hair would drift across her nose and bring out her deep emerald eyes-

And sometimes Ms. Goodwitch would catch Ruby staring, and she'd clear her throat and tell her to get back to work.

* * *

Yang was annoyingly observant, sometimes. And nosy, and pushy, and loud, and maybe none of that would have mattered if she also weren't judgmental. Like, if she didn't try to help Ruby with her dumb advice and stupid ideas for a 'healthy life outlook', Ruby wouldn't even care. But no, her sister had to try to be her fucking mom sometimes, and not in the good way, not like Ms. Goodwitch seemed, but in the worst way, in the way that made Ruby feel powerless and alone and angry.

One day, when Ruby walked into their dorm room to do some homework, Yang grabbed her sister from behind and squeezed as she lifted Ruby off the floor.

"Oh, my little baby's in love!" she said, rubbing her face on Ruby's shoulder.

"Yang put me down!" Ruby squeaked. "And no I'm not!"

"That blush says otherwise~" Yang freed an arm to bump Ruby's cheek. She barely shifted her balance to hold her sister with one arm.

"Yang!" Ruby protested. She flailed her arms.

Yang released her sister, who started pouting and brushing herself off.

"So, you don't have to tell me who it is," Yang lied, a mischievous grin growing on her face, "But if its one of our teammates-"

"It's not Weiss or Blake," said Ruby. She poured her textbooks and notebooks and writing utensils onto her bed and started to sort them.

"Ooo," coo-ed Yang. Didn't she have anything better to do? "So is it Pyrrha? She's on your favorite cereal, you know."

Ruby rolled her eyes. Of course she knew that. "No. And I think she's taken with Jaune."

"So who is it then?" Yang put her fists on her hips and smiled.

"No way I'm telling you." Ruby tried to get to her desk.

"C'mon," Yang whined, "Teeellll meeeee!"

"No!"

"Whyyyyyy noooooooooot?" Yang flopped on the floor in front of her sister.

"You never like my crushes," mumbled Ruby as she tried to walk around her sister. Why didn't Yang remember this? It'd save a lot of headaches.

Yang's expression froze. Then it went to discontentment. "Wait," she said, picking herself off the ground, "Is she a teacher again?"

Ruby tried to keep her face passive.

"Rubaby," Yang said, fake concern on her face, reaching an arm out to Ruby's shoulder. "You know teacher's can't date students-"

"Oh my Dust Yang can't you mind your own business?!" Ruby pushed her sister away from the hug she was trying to give her, tucking her hands in her armpits.

"I'm just trying to save you the heartbreak-"

"Nobody asked you!" Ruby screamed. She left the room, slamming the door behind her. Maybe the library'd be a quieter place to study, with less stupid nosy sisters.

* * *

One day, in detention, as Ruby was enjoying the company and attention Ms. Goodwitch was giving her, Ruby realized something terrible; the assignment was too easy. She'd finish in ten minutes at the rate she was going. This was unacceptable.

So she deliberately did some of the problems wrong. Ms. Goodwitch frowned in concern.

And on Ruby's second failed attempt, Ms. Goodwitch came over and leaned over her and pointed out her problem, and Ruby was feeling particularly naughty so she glanced back and upwards and breathed in Glynda's scent, of chalk and peppermint and old parchment-

[SMACK]

"Ow!" Ruby grabbed at the new red mark on her left wrist. Her pencil clattered on the table.

"Are you paying attention, Ms. Rose?"

"I- I am now, ma'am," Ruby said. The teacher's frown softened slightly but she was still right there, standing over her as Ruby started the next problem.

Ruby knew the correct answer, but there were only like five problems left so she had to do it wrong so she could stay with Ms. Goodwitch longer.

There was another loud smack and Ruby clutched her other hand.

"That is incorrect, Ms. Rose!" Ms. Goodwitch's face reddened and she put her hands on her hips. "What is the problem? You just performed the steps correctly on the previous problem!"

And Ruby tried to hide her inappropriate giddiness in her apologies.

Ruby managed to stay in detention for a whole hour before she couldn't do anything more wrong, and Ms. Goodwitch was getting exasperated because she couldn't understand why it wasn't sinking in. Ruby skipped back to her dorm, the marks on her arms already starting to fade.

* * *

Ruby always preferred older women. Well, it'd be more accurate to say she always had precocious crushes. In elementary school, she'd attached herself to their babysitter. Back at Signal Academy, she'd had a thing for one of the weapons instructors. Nothing came of any of these fleeting attractions, as they all thought she was too young to take seriously.

But now that she was an adult in an adult school for adults, surrounded by other adult adults who were adults, Ruby wasn't going to let Yang convince her she'd have to date 'people her own age'. Like, why was that even a thing in the first place? Not that it mattered, because they were all adults now, sort of.

On the other hand, Ruby'd be the first to admit that her feelings about growing up changed to whatever she thought was most convenient at the time. She'd prefer to have had a normal childhood- a time of her life she alone never seemed to experience- but if she was going to have the responsibilities of an adult, she might get some of the benefits of being one. She didn't mind feeling like a kid around Ms. Goodwitch, for example, but around Yang she resented being considered young.

See, when they were growing up, Yang'd always try to set Ruby up on dates with people her age. She'd take Ruby to her weird nightclubs for teenagers, and while Ruby would hang out in the corner enjoying the music, Yang'd pull some cute punk girl aside and introduce Ruby and they'd have a shallow conversation for an agonizing while before Yang'd pull Ruby aside and put an arm around her and whisper next to her face.

"Well, she's pretty cute, right?" Yang'd say. Sometime's she'd use a different adjective, but she'd always gently punch Ruby's shoulder and grin mischievously.

"Yeah, I guess," Ruby'd reply. Usually she'd have a drink or a cookie she could look into.

"She thinks you're cute too," Yang'd say, "And I can set you up. It'd be no problem. "

"I dunno," Ruby'd say. Truth was, she knew she wasn't interested, but Yang'd try to convince her no matter what she said.

"C'mon, I'll get you her number," Yang'd offer, "You could go home with her tonight~." Yang'd always have an insufferable smirk.

"Why don't go home with her then, if she's so cute?" Ruby'd snap.

And Yang'd say 'fine' and go talk to them and dance with them and maybe she'd come home late, or not come home until the next morning, or end up at some gay beat-up club and show up at 3 AM with a black eye and a split lip and some burn marks and she'd have to explain Risk Aware Consensual Kinks and Ruby'd secretly file that information away deep in the darkness of her soul. For when she was older, maybe.

And after Yang found out about her teacher crush (considering the total list of teachers Ruby had, it was pretty obvious it was Glynda), Yang tried to arrange a little mixer in the dorm rooms. Ruby might have appreciated the attempt if she weren't ALREADY IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE ELSE YANG, because even if she didn't intend to date anyone 'her own age', ugh, it was a good opportunity to make friends, and she was always down for that. At the very least, it'd be a great opportunity to set up playdates for Crescent Rose.

But this one was even more half-assed than everything else Yang ever did, because it was mostly just team JNPR and like one or two acquaintances who weren't even training to be hunters. Crescent had already been acquainted with Crocea Mors, Miló and Akoúo̱, Magnhild and Stormflower, and Ruby really, really didn't want to be around if Yang tried to play wingwoman for her at Nora or something.

So Ruby ducked out of the party early, saying she wanted to study in their adjacent dorm room. She thought about going over her Aura Manifestation homework again, but if Yang popped in she'd think it'd be suspicious she was doing homework for Ms. Goodwitch's class. Instead, Ruby decided to oil Crescent again.

There was a creak and a wooden knock and the door opened. Blake walked in.

"Hey, not much for parties either?" Ruby ventured.

"I think Yang spiked the punch," said Blake, "Because Weiss has been rather... uninhibited. I can't deal with her opinions when she's reserved, so," Blake trailed off. "...definitely couldn't' deal with her when she's free of inhibitions. "

"I'm pretty sure it'd be Nora who spiked the punch," Ruby joked. She was suddenly grateful she only grabbed a plate or three of cookies at the party.

"Oh?"

"Yeah..."

There was silence for a while. Ruby inspected Crescent's bearings and oiled any squeaky joints. Blake pulled out a book.

"Sorry my sis put on a party like this..." Ruby said, to break the silence.

"It's no trouble," Blake lied. "I wonder what the occasion is."

"Well," Ruby said. Blake seemed trustworthy, right? More than Weiss even, who was supposed to be her partner. And if Ruby couldn't trust her team, then what kind of leader was she? So she decided Blake was trustworthy. "Yang put this party to try to find me a girlfriend."

Blake looked up, a little in shock. "But she only invited us and team JNPR."

"Yeah, oversight on her part," laughed Ruby. "And the only reason she wants to hook me up is because she doesn't like who I'm crushing on now."

Blake looked concerned, like she was choosing her words carefully. "And what is it about your crush she doesn't like?"

Crap. Ruby wondered if she divulged too much, before Blake allayed her fears.

"And you don't need to tell me anything you don't want to. I understand the necessity of secrets," Blake added.

Ruby smiled in relief. Blake wasn't so bad, huh? "It's- it's because she's a bit older." That was technically true, right? Ruby looked into the distance grimly, "She wants me dating someone 'my own age'."

"Ah," said Blake. She relaxed slightly. She bit her lip for a moment. "Yang doesn't approve of you dating older women?"

And they talked a bit about relationships for a while. Blake was very understanding, and encouraging, and she was a great listener. It made Ruby feel better. Blake mentioned, a little bitterly, that she was once in a relationship with an older man, and that it ended badly, but not because he was older. Ruby never divulged who exactly her affection was targeted to, but Blake's advice was sound.

"I think you should follow your heart, Ruby," was what Blake ended the conversation with.

* * *

And Yang didn't help, though, with, what'd she call it, 'being strong for her sister'. Psh, yeah right. She was always doing that; ever since Summer died, pretending things didn't affect her, that she was just fine, so why couldn't Ruby just cheer up and move on too? It was like Yang was better than her because she didn't care. Ruby hated that. It was an argument they had all too often, and they had it again after Yang's excuse for a party.

"Why don't you care that mom's dead? You- You even had two moms, and they're both gone, you should feel twice as- as much as me!" Ruby would scream through a hoarse throat and wet eyes.

"Of course I care!" Yang screamed back. It was one of the few times she wasn't putting on a patronizing smile for her sister. "But I know they wouldn't want me wallowing in self-pity, and they wouldn't want you wasting your life-"

And Yang would try to hug Ruby. Sometimes Ruby'd let it happen, but today she was too mad.

"I don't want that for you either, Ruby," said Yang, trying not to let the rejected hug affect her mood, "So won't you just let it go?" Ruby was grateful, at least, that this time Yang didn't try to turn it into a cheesy song rendition.

But how could Ruby forget that kind of thing? How could she just go on like nothing was wrong?

Ruby stormed off. Was Ruby just supposed to accept that she'd never have a parental figure in her life? That wasn't fair. Fuck that.

* * *

And one day, Yang got fed up with Ruby being in detention all the time and walked in and just _told_ her, she fucking _told_ Glynda that Ruby had a crush on her.

Ruby spent the walk back to their dorm with her arms crossed, pointedly not looking at her half-sister. Yang tried to lecture her again, tried to convince Ruby that it wasn't a betrayal. And even though it may have improved the situation- Glynda seemed to be willing to start anew if Ruby got her schoolwork on track- Ruby wouldn't forgive her adopted sister, who wasn't even her real sister, so she could just go fuck off.

"I was just trying to get you over this whole crush thing," Yang protested as Ruby stormed ahead of her.

"I don't want to talk to you," Ruby stated, eyes closed and breathing forcibly steady.

"It was for your own good-"

"You don't know what's good for me!" Ruby's voice cracked. So much for being composed.

"I'm just looking out for you-" Yang said as she jumped to close the gap and grabbed Ruby's shoulder, turning the redhead around.

"Well don't!" Ruby swatted Yang's hand away. "Why do you even care who I like? You're not even my real sister!"

It was at best half-true, Ruby knew, but it was the phrase that hurt Yang the most, and at least it was the phrase that bought her enough time to activate her semblance to rush back to her dorm.

Behind her, Yang was frozen for a moment, before she slumped. She looked like she was about to cry. Good. Fucking sisters.

* * *

Ruby got back to her dorm and jumped on her bed, hugging her pillow to her face. She pulled Crescent Rose onto her bed from where it was propped against her dresser, and she hugged the mass of steel and composite. Crescent was the only family she needed right now. Crescent never judged her, or tried to change her, or failed her.

Well, unless you count the time a screw came loose during a sparring match back at Signal and she had to fight the rest of the fight halfway between scythe and sniper mode.

Ruby wiped away her tears and sat up on her bed and unfolded her weapon in her lap. She started going over every individual piece and joint, noting any points where it looked like wear might be setting in and, after procuring a tube of machine lubricant from her dresser, oiling any of the squeaky connections. Soon she wasn't crying anymore, dispassionately involved with weapon maintenance.

She was vaguely aware that Blake and Weiss were also in the room, attempting to do homework. But neither of them said anything, probably out of awkwardness.

And she was so engrossed in her work that she hardly even notice when Yang sulked in much later, and she didn't hear Yang when the blonde tried to talk with her.

And later that night, Yang bid her goodnight forlornly and Ruby didn't respond and their other two teammates seemed to know better than to ask about it; Weiss went back to counting money and Blake to reading a book, even as Yang hugged her pillow and sobbed into it, thinking nobody could hear.

And the next day Yang wished her good morning and opened her arms wide and smiled expectantly and Ruby just ignored her. It was so satisfying to see Yang's whole demeanor droop and her stupid smile vanish, to see her finally drop that facade of confidence she put up for Ruby that Ruby never asked for and didn't want her to do.

But Ruby knew she couldn't keep that up forever. She couldn't keep closing her eyes and tilting her head whenever Yang tried to talk to her, or walking the opposite way around the cafeteria whenever Yang tried to sit with her at lunch.

"So are we allowed to ask about what happened?" said Weiss, one day, her usual dissatisfied frown marring her face.

"Weiss," hissed Yang, "Don't aggravate the situation-"

"You've been fighting for weeks!" Weiss whined, "You used to be so close! Is whatever you're fighting about more important than each other?"

"I hate to agree with Weiss," said Blake. Weiss rolled her eyes, and Blake tried to keep her face passive. "But I'm sure we'd all be willing to help if we knew what was going on. And I at least wouldn't judge."

"Hey, I wouldn't judge either!" pouted Weiss.

"It's 'neither', you illiterate buffoon," intoned Blake.

Ruby cogitated. One one hand, people might think she was weird, and if they told anyone, it might hurt Ms. Goodwitch's reputation.

But on the other hand, it was hard to keep her feelings inside of herself all the time.

"I uh," Ruby began. She rubbed the back of her head. "I Have a crush on Ms. Goodwitch."

Weiss and Blake looked stunned for a moment. Then Weiss looked knowing and Blake smiled bemusedly.

"The teacher? Isn't she a bit old?" said Weiss.

"She's _mature,"_ corrected Ruby. she folded her arms.

"I actually think it's really cute," said Blake.

"I never said it wasn't cute," retorted Weiss with a huff. "It's not uncommon for age difference that drastic amid high society marriages."

"Wait, what?" said Yang, "You support this?"

Ruby made a face at her sister. Figures the only one who didn't want her to succeed was her own family.

"Well, is she single?" said Blake.

Ruby pushed her hands into her lap. "Yes," she said with a bit of a blush.

"Is she into women?" asked Weiss.

"I...think so?" said Ruby.

"Then I don't see the problem with pursuing her," said Blake. "Whether or not she says yes is a different matter."

"And you can always harbor a secret crush forever, if she's not interested." said Weiss.

"Except Yang just went up and told her," said Ruby through gritted teeth.

Blake and Weiss shot Yang dirty looks.

"What?" said Yang, "I was trying to protect her."

Weiss seemed to be on Yang's side, unfortunately, but Blake was on Ruby's, so it kind of worked out. Weiss even had the nerve to insist there weren't any sides.

When the argument subsided and the topic came back to Ruby's crush, though, Blake and Weiss offered their hands in support.

"I consider myself a bit of a love expert, actually," said Blake. "If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask."

'Hey, I am familiar with all the courtship rituals of Atlas," said Weiss, "My advice would be much more useful," Weiss crossed her arms.

Ruby almost teared up. "Thanks you guys."

* * *

One day, just when Ruby thought she might be having a good day, Weiss confronted her when they were alone in the dorm room. Well, maybe that was a little harsh; Weiss was only unpleasant to be around _most_ of the time.

"Ruby," she said. She pouted, like she was trying to figure out how to talk.

"Hey Weiss," replied Ruby, smiling. She could Weiss the benefit of the doubt today. Their friendship had a rocky start, but that just meant Weiss needed Ruby to believe in her, even if that belief didn't always pay off. "Hows it going?"

"I- good. Very good." Weiss said. She nodded her head. "Uh, thanks for asking." She fidgeted. "So are you and Yang better now?"

Ruby shrugged. "I guess. " Yang was still nosy and overbearing, but they were talking again. She explained that to the heiress.

"She obviously cares about you." Weiss said, "Otherwise she wouldn't try to involve herself in your life."

"Well, maybe I prefer she didn't." Ruby mumbled.

"Ruby Rose!" Weiss harrumphed, "Yang is your sister, and she loves you. You can't just take her love for granted."

"If she really loved me she'd listen to me," mumbled Ruby.

Weiss bit her lip. "I mean obviously she's not completely in the right. If you promise to forgive her, I'll talk to her for your sake. Try to get her to be less, ah, 'nosy'."

"Oh?" Ruby raised an eyebrow. She was surprised. "Why would you do that?"

Weiss fidgeted a little more, and her face reddened, like she didn't really want talk about her reasons. "I don't think sisters should fight, is all," was what she ended up saying.

Ruby was about to inquire further but Weiss interrupted her.

"So what's your plan?" Weiss said.

"My, uh, plan?" said Ruby.

Weiss put her hands on her hips. "Your _Plan!"_ she said angrily. "To win over Mz. Goodwitch? You don't think she's just going to fall in love with you out of nowhere, did you?"

Ruby looked at the floor and kicked her foot and didn't say anything. Hehe, that was such a joke, wasn't it? What could she possibly offer someone as amazing as Glynda?

Weiss softened and looked at the wall. "Did Blake tell you to do anything?"

"No," said Ruby offhandly. "Not really."

"So what about you is desirable?" said Weiss. Wow, harsh. Ruby thought that way all the time, but it was different coming from someone else.

"E-excuse me?" Ruby stepped back.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I mean for someone like Mz. Goodwitch. She's an established teacher, huntress, and master-class wizard. What would she see in you?"

"Uh, well," Ruby poked her pointer fingers together, "I'm cute?"

"Lots of people are cute."

"I'm young?" Ruby waved the air. "Ok, same problem. Uhhh." Ruby looked at the ceiling. "I'm almost a good student?"

"That's something you can leverage." Weiss said. She nodded as she cogitated. "You'll be her star pupil, and when you're spending all those late nights together, working, you can-"

"I know how that fantasy goes, Weiss!" squeaked Ruby, "I have it every night," she whispered.

That may have been a bit of an exageration, but Ruby did, frequently, dream about spending time with her crush, studying, late into the night, and Ruby'd confess her heart, and Ms. Goodwitch admit that she felt the same way, secretly, and then they'd- they'd smooch, like, on the mouth-

Weiss blushed and coughed into her fist. "Right." She crossed her arms. "So sounds like a plan, then? We'll get your grades up, the four of us."

Ruby smiled and nodded.

Weiss smiled in her usual way; looking like she was still trying to figure out how to move her face muscles in the correct positions. "So a side effect will be that our collective grades should improve, aha."

* * *

So Ruby became a model student. She started doing her homework, on time. She spent less time in detention, but Glynda smiled at her when she turned in her homework and praised her for her improving grades. And studying with Blake and Weiss was fun, and Yang was almost bearable when they talked about homework.

But the study sessions weren't enough. Nothing ever seemed to be enough. Even with her teammates helping her, even with her newfound motivation, sometimes Ruby just wallowed in despondency and put her pencil down and stared at her assignment. And later, Weiss would ask her if she did her homework, and Ruby'd lie and say she did, and Weiss would nod and grin and tell her good job and Ruby'd feel even worse because it wasn't a good job, she didn't deserve it, and the next night when they were supposed to do the followup assignment Ruby'd just pretend to work and fall even more behind and she really shouldn't be, all her friends were trying to hard to help her and she was just letting them down, just throwing away their kindness.

One day Ruby hesitantly knocked on the door to Ms. Goodwitch's office with her textbook and a heavy chest and teary eyes and admit that she didn't understand what was going on, that she wasn't smart enough, that maybe she just deserved to fail-

Glynda barely looked up from her work. "Stop that," she said.

"S-stop what?"

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself." She commanded. She flipped a piece of paper into her outbox and started grading the one under it. "You can complete the assignments. You can learn the material. So just do so."

"O-Ok." Ruby wiped her eyes on her tears. "I'll work on them tonight." That excuse worked on Weiss.

It didn't work on Glynda.

Glynda tapped her pencil in front of Ruby. "Work on them now." She was familiar with procrastinators, it turned out.

So Ruby opened her textbook in her lap, and Glynda moved stuff around on her desk so that Ruby had room to work there, not three feet away from her.

And when, after a couple fleeting, wonderful moments of productivity, Ruby lost her momentum and just stared at her page, sinking into despair, she'd feel a smack against her wrist, and Glynda was back to doing her work when Ruby looked up. She didn't deny doing so when Ruby asked; Glynda just had other work to do, but she didn't mind helping a student, she said.

And when Ruby hesitantly asked if she was being too much trouble, if Glynda was just wasting her time on her, if maybe it'd be better for everyone else if they just let her fall behind, Ruby got another smack, harder this time, that took a day to fade (so she'd remember, Glynda said).

Glynda looked up, above her glasses. "I will not let you fail, you understand?" she stated- or perhaps it was a command.

And Ruby's heart pounded against her chest and her throat burned into dryness and her cheeks went hot. She didn't respond, which Glynda must have interpreted as disbelief or refusal or something, because she continued.

Glynda smiled in the corner of her mouth. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and inhaled. "Ms Rose," she said. She looked Ruby in the eye and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ruby," -and the younger girl felt her cheeks grow hot- "I know you have doubts. A lot of people do. It's normal. But I believe you can overcome them, and I'm happy to be here, to help you do so."

And after an awkward, breathless moment, lost in the implications of her teacher's words, Ruby regained a normal sense of time and nodded, wide-eyed and earnestly, and Glynda smiled, a job well done.

And Glynda went back to work, and Ruby did the same. Glynda didn't dwell on the=is moment- or any of the similar moments she had with Ruby over the next few weeks; to her she was just helping a student. This was just Glynda's job. But Ruby didn't take the idea that she wasn't special any wrong way. It was just that Glynda was so kind.. So, so kind, and maybe Ruby thought for a moment that perhaps this kindness felt wonderful, and maybe she even deserved it.

Maybe Glynda didn't realize how much an impact she had on Ruby then, but that was the moment Ruby knew for sure that she was in love.

* * *

Another thing about older women (well, older people in general), was that they were so much more interesting. Like, what did teenagers even talk about? Bands? Cartoons? Food? How much they had to drink the previous night? Psh. And even the people who had future plans, who had ideas for how their lives would be, hearing them was way less sexy than hearing someone talk about everything they've achieved, all the dreams they've fulfilled.

And Glynda was one of the latter; she never ran out of stories about past battles or previous students or experiments with magic. She'd done a lot of research in magic, it turned out; if Ruby decided to take Advanced Dust Manipulation, the textbook would have a section about plasma shape coils that Glynda personally discovered, Glynda mentioned offhandedly, and Ruby wondered if she could install a spell cylinder on Crescent by the time she had to pick her upper division electives.

Ruby made working in Glynda's office a regular thing, and she was always enthralled when, after Ruby finished her work but still wanted to stay, the older huntress leaned back in her chair and adjusted her glasses as she gazed into the wall and regaled her student of so many previous lives, glamorous and heroic, dangerous, valliant and amazing. Ruby'd rest her chin on her palms and let herself be carried off by Glynda's words. It was these kinds of stories why Ruby wanted to become a Huntress in the first place.

And, you know, there was also this whole 'mom' thing. That was... well, potentially it could be considered weird, possibly, Ruby might have admitted.

Ruby didn't think of Glynda like a replacement for Summer, right? 'cause the part of her brain that was most overactive after puberty would make that _really_ weird.

Ruby didn't think she was in love with her dead mother, just resentful and hurt and angry and sad and bitter. None of those things she felt about Glynda.

Ruby dreamed about that flaxen-haired mage-goddess in ways that she'd never even dream of dreaming about a blood relation. (Though she had to keep those to herself.)

Glynda was gorgeous, all of her, and she was confident and super-smart and very kind. It made loving her all the easier. Or maybe Ruby thought she was so beautiful because she was in love with her.

And she was _so_ beautiful. The Ruby of even a month ago didn't even _know,_ couldn't possibly comprehend just how brilliant Glynda shone when she imparted knowledge, when she dueled, when she fixed her hair at the end of class when she thought everyone was preoccupied with leaving. Every day Glynda was becoming more and more of a fixation for Ruby.

She'd get lost in Glynda's eyes, her commanding, viridescent, burning eyes, framed by those purple cat's-eye glasses. Ruby memorized every contour of her savior's eyes, gently giving way to the beginnings of some distinguished crows feet, and she'd follow the curve of Glynda's nose, and then be mesmerized by how her lips looked so soft even when they were curled in an imperious frown and be elated when that frown would briefly turn into a smile for her, just for her, her star pupil. And when Glynda said she was proud of her, Ruby felt like she could fly, like her heart was buoyant enough to lift her whole body and she'd soar though the school in ways not even her semblance could approximate.

And the fact that Glynda liked her- not in the same way Ruby like her back- the fact that Glynda lavished her attention on a special pupil, that felt amazing. Even if Ruby wasn't abstractly special, even if any other student who did the same thing would have gotten the same attention, Ruby was content that, for now, _she_ was that student, that in Glynda's eyes _she_ was special, for this semester, for this moment.

And maybe sometimes Ruby'd allow herself to believe that, in the way Glynda's glances would linger a little longer on her than anyone else, in the small grins Glynda'd flash her when she met Ruby's gaze, in the shoulder touches and the "I'm proud of you"'s and the occasional teasings in class, maybe Glynda felt something a little more- that Ruby wasn't just this semester's star pupil, just another overachiever- just another statistical inevitability. Ruby'd allowed herself to believe that, maybe, she had a place in Glynda's heart the same way Glynda did in her's.

And once reality came back to her, but not all the way, Ruby'd allowed herself to believe that maybe if Glynda didn't feel the same, well, Ruby could work to make it so. She'd become someone who Glynda'd fall in love with, wholly and desperately and absolutely, the same way Ruby fell in love with Glynda.

So maybe Ruby wanted someone like that- confident, supportive, wonderful- as a fixture in her own pitiful, lonely life. And maybe, for other people, that person was their mom. But Ruby didn't have a mom. Summer was gone. Summer had abandoned Ruby. Fuck her. Ruby had someone else now, someone better, someone who made her feel happy and confident and smart, and she was beautiful on top of all that. Glynda was so much better than a mom. Ruby was so sure of it.

* * *

Then from out of nowhere came the cultural festival. Technically, they'd known about it for a month, but the week before hand when the staff mentioned it over the intercom team RWBY collectively went 'oh, yeah,' having forgotten about the entire thing. Team RWBY couldn't think of anything more creative, and besides, it was too late to reserve the Arena like team JNPR did. So when Ruby suggested a cafe, everyone went along with it.

So the plan was to hope that between the four of them they could almost cook something edible and then charge people a couple bucks for it and call it good. There'd be costumes involved, because dressing up was fun.

As it turned out, Weiss was completely useless at cooking, muttering something about the reason she had servants. Yang could make bachelor food, stuff you'd put in a blender and fry, and exactly one entree in case she needed to promise dinner to secure a date. Ruby could make cookies. Blake saved the plan, though, when it turned out that she knew how to cook from scratch. Mostly subsistence food, but technically food nonetheless.

Weiss frowned immensely. "I can learn how to cook," she insisted.

"Oh," Blake raised an eyebrow, "You haven't resigned yourself to being completely useless?"

And they started fighting again, and Yang broke the two apart, and it was agreed that Blake and Weiss would be the chief chefs while Yang and Ruby would be primarily waitresses. The room they were assigned had enough tables and chairs to make a decent cafe, and it only took a couple curtains to decorate.

And Ruby spent an afternoon making a special invitation for Ms. Goodwitch. She was too happy about it, it was childish and silly but, well, since she'd gotten on her teacher's good side the older woman had been more indulgent of such behavior. Ruby idly wondered if this was what normal kids got to do for their moms.

And Glynda had said yes! Ruby tried to keep her composure, only managing to do it long enough to leave Ms. Goodwitch's office.

Ruby jumped back into their dorm, giggling, hopping the tips of her feet and shaking her hands in excitement. "She's going to be there!" she said, repeatedly, excitedly.

Weiss crossed her arms. "Well obviously. She's a school administrator, so she has to attend."

"Ruby meant that she'll visit our booth," stated Blake. She was, as usual, nose-deep in a book.

Weiss pursed her lips and reddened a little. "I knew that. I just wanted Ruby to know that even if she said no, we could still go ahead with the plan."

Yang forced a grin and muttered a congratulations before turning back to her own preparations.

* * *

When their costumes arrived, they all took an afternoon to try them on. Yang considered adding a pair of glasses to her outfit before she realized Glynda wore glasses and decided it might be a little weird.

Blake had procured a pair of dog ears for her costume. Ruby and Yang agreed on something, for the first time in what seemed like forever; Blake looked absolutely adorable in them. Their stoic teammate had seemed a little nervous when she walked in front of them with the headband, and she seemed... relieved?- when Ruby and Yang liked it.

But Weiss didn't agree. "I don't see the appeal of being part-animal," she said condescendingly, "I mean, you're basically tempting bestiality."

And whatever relief Blake wore on her face vanished, and whatever goodwill she and Weiss had built up evaporated. They had argued before, but not like this- there was yelling, and personal attacks and eventually physical attacks, until Ruby found herself putting Weiss in an amateur judo hold while Yang had to physically carry out of the room Blake, a flurry of cartoonish flailing limbs. Ruby felt awkward telling two girls, both two years her senior, the terms of their time-outs, but maybe it was as sign of her improving confidence that she felt proud to be able to do so, even if she felt sad that she had to.

* * *

And the day before the day of the cultural festival, Yang confronted Ruby. She'd waited in their dorm for Ruby to walk in, and Yang was sitting on the bed, looking kind of pathetic.

"Hey," Yang said, her normal exuberance gone from her voice, "So the kids still aren't talking to each other."

Ruby chuckled. "Yeah. They're still cooking together, though. In abject silence."

Yang laughed a little harder. "Sounds efficient."

"I really thought they were getting along, too," Ruby lamented.

"Yeah..." Yang said.

And then Yang suddenly started tearing up, and she stood up and put her arms out, asking for a hug. "I just want you to know, Rubaby," Her voice cracked, "No matter how hard we fight, I still love you. And-" Ruby leaned into the hug, and Yang squeezed her as tight as she could, "I support you, and I'll support you in your love too."

It was the first time in a while they hugged. Ruby missed these moments, though she wouldn't admit it to Yang.

"Thanks sis," Ruby said.

* * *

And the plan went off without a hitch; Glynda showed up at their booth and ate the special noodle luncheon Ruby'd prepared (with Blake and Weiss's help, of course) and Glynda waved down Ruby to sit with her and Ruby confessed her love. It was good to get it off her chest, not that she did a good job of concealing it before.

And Glynda didn't _really_ say no. She said she couldn't say yes, that it wasn't possible because she was a teacher. Not that she didn't want to. Glynda never said she didn't like Ruby. And she promised to still be her teacher.

But it still didn't feel good to be rejected, so Ruby asked Blake to handle Glynda's cleanup. Ms. Goodwitch seemed a little dazed and didn't see Ruby wave her goodbye, but she was good on her promise to still be the best teacher she could be for Ruby.

There were a few weeks of class, in which Glynda tried her best to act normally around Ruby. Ruby thought it was adorable, how Glynda would clear her throat and blush a little whenever she held eye contact with the younger girl, how she'd flash a little grin whenever she caught Ruby staring at her. And their little personal meetups were largely unchanged, except Glynda was sometimes a little less composed. Ruby was a little worried that this might break her image of the teacher, but she found she enjoyed the little moments when Glynda seemed a little less infallible, a little more like someone who could be in love, with all the clumsy uncertainty love entailed.

* * *

The next thing coming up was the homecoming dance. It wasn't as big or as fancy or as important as the Fall Formal was going to be, but it was a dance nonetheless, and that meant it was a time to have fun and a time to be fancy and a time for crushes to be revealed, if they'd come up in the past three months.

"So," said Yang tentatively, "You're not going to ask Mz. Goodwitch, are you? I mean, she said 'no', and you should respect that. And there's plenty of girls your own age."

"Not as a date, no," said Ruby, "but I think a little dance sometime during isn't out of the question?"

"Sounds like a solid plan," said Weiss, "Besides, friends dance with each other all the time, so you have plausible deniability about your intentions." She turned to the black-haired member of the group. "C'mon Blake, let's dance right now."

"We're not friends, Weiss." Blake didn't even look up from her book.

Weiss ran a hand through her hair and harrumphed in dismissal. "Yang?"

"Let's go!"

And they danced. Ruby was not amused.

"So," said Weiss after the impromptu embarrassment. She was panting a little bit. " how're we going to help you out? Dresses? Makeup?"

"Don't you guys have your own preparations to make?" said Ruby, a little apprehensive. "Like, with your own dates?"

"There's nobody I like," intoned Blake.

"M-me neither," said Weiss.

Blake looked up from her book, a little dismissively, and opened her mouth to begin an objection. Then she deflated. "No wait that was right. Good job, Weiss," she intoned to her book.

Weiss smiled before she caught herself and turned it into a frown.

Yang shrugged.

"Well, ok then," said Ruby, letting the excitement rise in her chest.

* * *

Weiss took them all into town one day to hang out at the mall and buy dresses and other accessories. A little overdoing it, Ruby thought, it wasn't a huge dance after all, but Weiss insisted and even offered to pay. Least she could do, she said, and that, at the very least, it'd be practice for when they did this for real at the formal.

It took some time to convince Blake to go with them. Yang tried to say that it'd be fun to go into town as a team, and Ruby mentioned a couple book sales.

"I don't want you to buy me a dress," Blake said to Weiss. It was one of her conditions.

"It's really no bother," Weiss said to the wall. She ran a hand threw through her hair.

"I don't need your charity," said Blake through gritted teeth.

"With how you normally dress I wouldn't' be so sure," Weiss retorted.

And they fought again. Ruby had more experience in breaking them up, and after only about a minute they were in opposite corners of the room. It was a bit awkward to talk to them like this, but she was happy she was learning conflict resolution.

"I think it's really nice of you to offer, Weiss," said Yang. Weiss turned her head back and smiled awkwardly.

"As long as I can bring a book," Blake said eventually, "I'll accompany you. Maybe it'll be fun."

* * *

Dress shopping went relatively quickly. Apparently, Weiss had booked an appointment in advance or something, and there was a tailor waiting for them when they arrived. Blake sat in the corner, reading aggressively. Or passive-aggressively.

"So its assumed the first person you dance with is someone you're screwing unless you make it apparent otherwise," said Weiss as they waited in line to pay, "So your first dance should be with Yang. Keep it carefree, and don't hesitate to accept dance offers from anyone else."

"You'll want to make it seem like you're there to dance, so make sure you dance during the first three songs. Keep picking platonic partners; Team JNPR would be a good choice, though Jaune's kind of obnoxious and Pyrrha's too good for you. Ren and Nora would make good choices."

Ruby nodded along. She examined the evening gown in her hand.

"So if you go through all that," Weiss concluded, "Nobody will bat an eye when you ask to dance with Mz. Goodwitch."

Ruby nodded, memorizing every word. "That works?"

"Yeah, it's how it goes down at all the corporate balls."

Blake rolled her eyes. "This isn't politics, Weiss," she turned to Ruby, "Just ask her to dance."

"What? No!" said Ruby. This was _serious._ The most serious thing in her entire life, maybe. There was no way it could be so simple.

"And what happens if she says no?" said Weiss, to Blake, "There's much less chance of that happening if Ruby plans it out."

"But you can't build a relationship based on emotional manipulation," said Blake.

"It's not 'manipulating' exactly," huffed Weiss, "We all try to be the best versions of ourselves for the people we like."

Blake rolled her eyes.

"So what advice do _you_ have, Blake?" said Weiss haughtily, accusingly.

Blake shrugged. "Keep your hands warm. You make a better impression when you touch hands then. Cold hands tell someone you're cold and uncaring."

And Weiss turned red and pulled her hands into her sleeves. "W-what? That's not real."

"It's psychology," shrugged Blake, smirking ever so slightly.

"What happened to not being able to build relationships on manipulation?"

"I'm just telling you how to make the best impressions," said Blake.

And Ruby filed that tidbit away, ignoring that Weiss started shooting glares at Blake.

* * *

Afterwards, Weiss led them to a perfume shop. There were bottles arrayed on glass shelves. She could hear the dull hum of a fan in the background, to keep the air clean if you wanted to try out a fragrance, Weiss said.

"Is this really necessary?" said Blake. "You should smell like yourself."

"But you could smell like the best version of yourself," said Weiss. "Don't think your crush deserves the best you?"

Ruby nodded. Of course Glynda deserved- well, she deserved so much more than her, but Ruby'd try to live up to that expectation.

Ruby looked through the bottles. There were fancy Altesian names, written if flowery cursive. Ugh. She wanted to smell nice, but she didn't even know what half these fragrances were.

But then she picked up a bottle and it said-

Cake Batter!

"I need this one!" she squeaked, jumping on her heels and waving the bottle around. She popped it open and took a wiff. Ahh, it did smell like birthday cooking mistakes-

She looked to the right, and immediately put the cake batter bottle down, because this one was fresh brownies-

And then pumpkin pie, and cotton candy, and it turned out there was an entire line of sweets themed perfumes Ruby thought she'd actually like to try -

And she stopped picking them up until she read all of them, picking up only the best one once she was finished.

"Ok, here's the one I want," said Ruby, to Weiss. She held out a small glass bottle that read 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough'.

"But your lips already taste like cookie dough," said Blake, around her book.

Weiss and Ruby and especially Yang stopped what they were doing to look at the bookworm. Weiss almost got a word in before Yang said, menace in her voice, "Why do you know what Ruby's lips taste like?"

"I read the label on her chap-stick?" said Blake.

Yang relaxed a bit. Weiss also looked relieved.

Blake turned to Ruby, "Hey, at least it's better than wilted lilacs, spearmint and zinc." She tilted her head towards Weiss.

"Zinc?" said Ruby.

"Weiss likes to bathe in her money sometimes."

Yang burst into laughter. Weiss's face went crimson. "H-how did you know about that?"

Yang patted Weiss's head. "So what do I smell like, Blake?"

Blake's nose twitched, probably just for theatrical effect. "Mostly? Charcoal, gunpowder, and sex."

Yang laughed heartily. "Yeah, sounds about right."

* * *

Eventually, Ruby walked out of there with a bottle of the cookie dough one and some fancy perfume Weiss picked out for her, because it 'complimented her aesthetic'.

Weiss bought them lunch afterwards. Sandwiches, at one of the mall food stores. Yang grabbed a cheese-steak and Ruby opted for a plate of cookies instead.

"I don't want you to buy me anything," said Blake.

"It's really no trouble," said Weiss with her signature tsundere hair flourish. "I'm trying to be nice, so just tell me your favorite sandwich and I'll get it for you."

"I don't want you to be nice to me."

"Fine, then I'll buy you your _least_ favorite sandwich."

"Why are you so insistent on spending money on me?" Blake snapped.

"Maybe I'm trying to atone." Weiss put a hand on her hip.

"You could start by apologizing."

"Fine!" Weiss threw up her hands. "I'm sorry you're a dumb Faunus-loving nerd who hates sandwiches!"

Blake's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to yell before Weiss stopped her.

"I'm sorry," Weiss put a hand to her face. "It's just- you're my first friends, you know? I hate messing up." She bit her tongue.

"That's not good enough," said Blake, but her expression softened. "But I guess I can wait a little longer until you figure out how to apologize, considering your circumstances."

Weiss smiled anxiously.

Blake coughed and turned back to her book. "And my favorite's the tuna melt, if you need to know."

* * *

Weiss pulled Ruby away from lunch early and dragged the younger girl in front of the last store. Blake had vanished a while back but now appeared besides them, nose in her book as always. Yang was nowhere to be seen.

"W-what?" mumbled Ruby, nervously.

It was a lingerie store.

"It's a lingerie store?" asked Ruby, meekly.

"It's sexy underwear," offhandly mentioned Blake.

"I- I know what Lingerie is!" Ruby squeaked. She felt her face grow hot. "I just want to know why you think I need some? I'm not going to take my dress off for Glynda, right?"

"It's not so much how they look but how they make you feel," said Weiss.

"It's a confidence booster," said Blake. "If you think you're more sexy, you'll act more sexy, and therefore _be_ more sexy."

Blake and Weiss tried to pull Ruby into the store, not noticing that there was a rumbling in the background, like a stampede of angry bulls.

Then Yang came into view, sprinting intensely and trailing a cloud of dust behind her. She jumped in between Weiss and Blake and picked both of them up by their faces.

"You are 3.734 gazillion years too early to take my sweet baby sister shopping for lewd undergarments!" she screamed.

Ruby chuckled. It was one of the rare times she was relieved her sister was so overprotective.

* * *

With the dance a few days away, Ruby had another preparation to make. She was in their dorm room, double checking that the blinds were closed and the door was locked.

"So, thanks for helping me out here," Ruby said, nervously, "I just want to brush up on my dance moves, and I know you won't make fun of me."

Crescent Rose did nothing, leaned against the dresser.

Ruby smiled in relief. "Thanks so much," she said. She put a hand on the scythe's shaft, and another on the top of the blade, which was wrapped in the bed sheets so she wouldn't cut herself, of course.

Three step cadences, lead with the right foot, tilt on alternate phrases, Ruby thought to herself as she waltzed with her weapon. Yeah, she had this down.

* * *

And Yang did her hair, a couple hours before the dance. They didn't talk much, but it was less an awkward silence and more a contented one, Ruby hoped. A couple curls and some feathering, and something that made it poof out a little more. Nothing that made her look like she was trying as hard as her heart was beating when she imagined seeing Glynda there later that night.

* * *

And Blake helped Ruby put on her make up, right before the dance. For all her lamentations about having to grow up so soon, Ruby never actually experienced some of the stuff about adulthood she thought might be fun. Like looking pretty for someone you like. She had no idea how to do any sort of makeup, but luckily Blake seemed to.

"So do you want to look like a teenager, an adult, a teenager trying to look like an adult, or an adult trying to look like a teenager?" Blake said, sorting her makeup containers.

"You know, I am quite familiar with the application of cosmetics," Weiss interjected. She lurked in the background through the whole ordeal.

Blake rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, maybe just a teenager?" Ruby said. She didn't want to give an incorrect impression of herself, even though maybe Glynda'd like her to look a certain way? "What's the difference?"

"It determines how much glitter make-up she'll put on you," said Weiss.

The two convinced Ruby to go with a little glitter on the cheeks and lips, on top of some rose blush and slight eyeshadow, and some peach lipstick that didn't taste like cookie dough. Duller, autumn colors that didn't stand out so much.

"I thought you were all about looking like 'real' yourself for your love interests," harumphed Weiss.

"Well," Blake said. She cogitated for a moment. "I can understand wanting to cover aspects of yourself you don't want people to see. Not every part of you is for everybody. Perhaps I was a little unfair to you earlier Weiss. I apologize."

Weiss looked like she didn't know how to react to the apology.

"'I forgive you, Blake,'" said Blake helpfully.

Weiss reddened and pouted and put her fists on her hips. "I know how to accept an apology, you dunce!"

"Feel free to show me sometime." Blake smiled slightly.

Ruby laughed a bit and hoped the two girls were friends again.

* * *

The dance was nice. A little low-key; not all the students showed up, and in some of the decorations and food it was obvious that significant expense was spared. Ruby felt a bit weird in her dress and make-up (her lipstick wasn't even cookie-dough flavored, like what was up with that?). Yang managed to find a date, and Blake and Weiss hung out at the punch bowl as Ruby tore up the dance floor. Team JNPR all went stag but they danced together a lot, and some people made a big deal about how apparently Velvet and Yatsuhashi were a couple now.

And halfway through the night, after Ruby warmed her hands on a flame conjured by Yang, Ruby approached a corner where several teachers stood and chatted. Headmaster Ozpin was there, looking inscrutable as always, sipping a cup of tea as always, and Professors Port and Oobleck were arguing animatedly a little ways away.

And Ruby noticed it earlier but now she had the chance to take it all in; Glynda was in an elegant evening dress, white with hints of purple and an off-shoulder strap leaving Ruby wondering how it didn't fall completely down her chest, not that she'd like to see that or anything-

"Hello Ms. Goodwitch," Ruby smiled. She bowed. "You look beautiful tonight."

Weiss told her to stick with 'beautiful' for deniability reasons, even though Ruby would have preferred to use something like 'absolutely resplendent', or 'perfect in every way'.

'Beautiful', though, was enough to put a tint on Glynda's cheeks. Ruby felt her breath catch in her chest, but she regained composure easily enough.

"May I have a dance," Ruby said, extending her left hand, "With my favorite teacher?"

Glynda looked sideways and chuckled nervously. Maybe a bead of sweat formed on her forehead, Ruby couldn't see clearly; her field of vision narrowed and her heart beat in her ears. A giddiness sprung up in her stomach and threatened to make her limbs twitch.

Then professor Ozpin stepped up. "If I may interject," he said, briefly glancing to Glynda, "I've been meaning to congratulate you on your academic performance. May I steal you for a moment? We don't have to dance if you don't want to, and if you'd like to raid the buffet table I'd certainly accompany you." He patted his stomach for emphasis. Glynda visibly sighed. Ruby hoped she didn't make this too awkward.

Ruby shrugged and smiled. "We can dance, yeah."

To give deniability, she meant. Glynda wouldn't doubt her intentions were pure if Ruby was willing to dance with the Headmaster, probably the most esteemed teacher here.

And Ozpin was cool. A little distracted, a lot cryptic. Nobody batted an eye as they danced stiffly and formally amid a smattering of dancing groups. They crossed paths with Ren and Juane briefly, and when they bumped into Velvet and Yatsuhashi he took a moment to tell a parable about a monk and a river or something.

Ozpin was a gentleman, and he took the two minutes they spent dancing to wax about the nature of fate and the universe and stuff. Ruby tried to follow what the man was saying, but she couldn't, but maybe he didn't want to be completely understood anyway.

But towards the end he said something that Ruby thought she knew what meant. "They say fate can be read in the stars," Headmaster Ozpin said, "If you know how to look."

"Oh?" replied Ruby. Honestly, her mind was a little preoccupied with her fallback plan.

"I'm not sure how true that is," he disclaimed, "but Glynda is a decent astronomer, and it's a prefect night out for stargazing. She has a key to the astronomy balcony."

Ruby processed that information.

As the song ended, Ozpin gave his final bow, "Why don't you ask her about it?" he said, as he took his leave.

* * *

And that was how Ruby and Glynda ended up on the observatory balcony, away from the crowd and the dance and the noise, away from everybody else.

On the walk there Ruby got the chance to tell Glynda what she thought of the older huntress's dress, how good she looked in it, and how nice her hair was and how graceful she was when she moved. Glynda smiled and blushed and thanked Ruby for the compliment.

The din of the dancehall fading, they went onto a balcony, high above the forest and the courtyard and so, so very far away from all of Ruby's doubts and reservations and fears.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Ruby extended her left hand again, this time with a little more flourish, a lot more confidence. She bowed a little, leaning forward invitingly, a coy smile on her face.

And Glynda looked a little stunned, and she blushed a little and she took a short breath that formed a small cloud in the cold air when she released it but, after what seemed like an eternity, took Ruby's hand and pulled her forward. She put a hand on Ruby's waist, a little closer and more tightly than fitted a strictly platonic relationship, and a hand tenderly on Ruby's bare shoulder.

Ruby relished the caresses as they danced a little waltz to no music but the occasional flutter of winds through the trees and the caw of a crow in the forest below. Glynda twirled Ruby around and she ended up facing the same way, her arms crossed with Glynda's over her's. Ruby leaned her head back into the hug, to feel the warmth. And they spun out again, and Glynda dipped Ruby.

Ruby leaned her head back and savored the feeling of being held, wishing the moment would last forever. And then she opened her eyes and looked towards the older woman.

Glynda's lips twitched, and she held Ruby's desperate gaze.

She looked at the floor as she pulled Ruby back up into the default waltz position, and Ruby 'accidentally' stumbled into Glynda's arms, not enough to trip, but ending up with her hands gently resting on the older woman's chest as Glynda touched Ruby's shoulders to steady the young huntress.

Ruby stared up at the her teacher and chuckled softly twice. Glynda's breath caught and a blush grew across her face.

And Ruby put her hands on Glynda's shoulders and leaned on her tiptoes, her eyes lidded and her breathing heavy and even her legs wobbling a bit, and Ruby pursed her lips and let her eyes lose control until the tears of joy in the corners of her eyes obscured everything but the absolutely resplendent woman in front of her.

At the last second Glynda turned her head. "Ruby," she breathed, " you know I can't-"

Ruby planted her kiss on Glynda's cheek. It was hot and a little wet and it was absolutely amazing. The older woman shuddered under her arms, and Ruby held her lips there for forever in a moment.

The soft pop of a kiss released marked the end of the dance but Glynda held Ruby for a few more seconds. Then, hands still around the younger girl's waist and shoulder, Glynda stepped back a single step and locked eyes with the younger huntress, smiling solemnly. Ruby returned the smile and the longing gaze.

Glynda coughed and released Ruby and turned to the balcony. She leaned on the edge and gestured towards the stars.

"I don't think fate is read in the stars," she said, "But meteorology has many practical applications."

Ruby smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Glynda was so smart.

"Take that star, for instance," Glynda said, "That's the brightest star in the Doomed Hunters. You can tell what direction is north by where their weapon's point."

Ruby smiled. "That's cool, yeah, but I already knew that," she said weakly.

"But did you know you can determine the date by how far they are above the horizon?" Ms. Goodwitch said, smiling slightly.

"But you could just use a clock, right? Or a calendar?"

Glynda nodded. Then she smiled. "Not if you're stranded in Grimm territory."

And Glynda recounted the time she and Ozpin and their old team missed an extraction and had to subsist around and under a horde of Grimm for three weeks. Ruby was awed.

And sometime during the story, Ruby's hand brushed Glynda's briefly, lightly, and Glynda paused her lesson. She eyed Ruby from the corner of her eye, and as she turned back to the sky and started speaking again she grasped Ruby's hand in her own.

* * *

They returned to the dance, eventually, separately, after an awkward goodbye handshake. It started out formal but then Ruby clasped her other hand around Glynda's and Glynda's face heated enough to fog up her glasses in the cold night air.

Professor Ozpin interrupted Glynda as she was walking back into the dancehall, shaking her glasses in attempt to eliminate the condensation.

"Uh, Glynda," said Professor Ozpin. He pulled a handkerchief out from his coat pocket and conjured a mirror and held out both towards the woman. "You might want to check your cheek."


	3. The Homecoming Dance, Aftermath

I guarantee no expertise in or even basic correct knowledge of romance, philosophy, grammar or RWBY canon. Especially the RWBY school year; I'm currently operating under the assumption that first season was spring/summer, second season was first half of fall, which makes the Vytal festival end during the beginning of winter.

I'm going to say, I'm not quite caught up with RWBY canon, so maybe some of the backstory elements this suggests have been overturned already. Also, I am a bit of a fan of Wizard of Oz canon, just fyi.

Justifying the 'Mature' tag, here, what with all the sex jokes.

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

Glynda leaned over a sink in a quiet golden bathroom. She stared intermittently at her reflection and at the jet of faucet water and at her hands and at nothing in particular. Ozpin's conjured hand mirror and handkerchief were placed on a nearby shelf, having served to be insufficient for the task she needed to do. Or at least that's what she told him, so that she could retreat to an empty bathroom and come to terms with- with the night-, the glowing hum of a florescent light providing her comfort and company in the still of the night and the aftermath of the school dance.

Glynda splashed some water on her cheek, spreading it around face and blotting it with her handkerchief. It got most of the actual lipstick off, but there was some glitter left.

Glynda splashed some water on her eyes, and then did so again, before cupping two handfuls and drenching her face and hair and dress. Not even that helped, and whats more it had gotten her dress wet.

Glynda snapped her fingers, and her dress magically dried. She still had enough control to manage that, at least, ha ha.

Glynda'd been preparing for the Homecoming dance for a while now, about a month maybe, ever since she'd remembered it was a scheduled event. Mentally, she meant, of course. Mentally exclusively; nobody really made other preparations for the Homecoming dance; even the student council committee had last-minuted everything from the fliers and decorations, some of which had originally been for some other event and were sloppily redone at the last minute. (On a side note; why did they even have arbor day banners?)

The school- boarding school, monster hunting school- was a new place for most students, given the current education system, and the authorities at Beacon wanted to ease them into the experience. Thus the low-key nature of the dance; to try not to add on to all their teenage existential identity crises and hormones and life uncertainties and crushes on their teachers-

Glynda had been a little nervous that Ruby might ask her to the dance, in the weeks leading up to it, when they were alone in her office, reviewing material, idly chit-chatting. She could see it too clearly- they'd be sitting across from each other, opposite sides of her desk, like usual; Glynda grading last week's assignments, Ruby working on next week's, and Ruby'd mention the dance- just casually, offhandly, like it wasn't a thing really (and it wasn't supposed to be)- and Glynda could see- she could just _see_ that Ruby would look up with her adorable silver eyes and pout slightly and suggest that maybe they could go together? And Glynda would have had have to say no- she'd looked up the rule, and found one that prohibited teachers from attending as dates with their own students. It gave her a little relief; she'd have an official excuse, one that Ruby couldn't argue with, one that avoided explicitly hurting her feelings. It was on the books, right, so she didn't even have to get into her own feelings-

Because maybe, possibly, a part of her wished she could say yes.

Because maybe, possibly, a part of her wished that Ruby would have asked her anyway, that Ruby was willing to take that reckless plunge into inconsolable taboo, and maybe Glynda'd make some sort of excuse so they could go as a platonic but still intimate teacher-student duo.

And maybe, just possibly, Glynda fantasized- not seriously, of course- about what that'd be like; a little public affection, a little carefree dancing, a little private intimacy. Maybe resting their heads together during a slow dance...

But, to Glynda's relief- of course it was only relief- Ruby never mentioned the dance. She ended up just attending with her team. Pretty much only Velvet and Yatsuhashi had decided to go as a couple, and you know, good for them; Glynda made sure to congratulate them, in part because, unfortunately, some students still had intolerable hang-ups on inter-species couples, and some students had discovered very colorful words to describe said inter-species couples. As a teacher, it was Glynda's proud duty to educate and lead poor lost children into the light of knowledge and understanding, but for some students, sometimes, she wished she could just give up and set said students on fire instead. It'd certainly be less of a headache.

But anyway- just as Glynda had been enjoying her relief, Ruby just went ahead and asked her to dance, in front of everyone, in front of the DUST FORSAKEN HEADMASTER. In front of the person who could get her fired for courting a student. Seriously Ruby?

(Well, given how long Glynda'd been a teacher, and how long she'd known headmaster Ozpin before even that, there was very little chance that Glynda'd _actually_ be fired. She could play off her and Ruby's relationship as strictly platonic, or as one-sided on Ruby's part- which would be easy, because it was, of course it was- but then they wouldn't be able to see each other as much (possibly not at all), they'd have to give up their office hour sessions, and worst case scenario, Glynda'd have to throw Ruby completely under the bus. It might get her expelled, and even if Ruby was allowed to stay, she'd never be allowed near Glynda again. That was not a pleasant thought. )

Well, perhaps in Ruby's defense, people were dancing with everyone. Port went with some jumpy song with three-fourths of team CFVY, and nobody thought that was weird. Probably because he wasn't dancing one on one with anyone, or because none of his students were in love with him and he wasn't constantly having private sessions with one of them-

See, if Ruby had jumped in front of her with Yang leaning on her shoulders and one of her other teammates off to the side, looking a little cross at being there, and if Ruby asked for Glynda to join them on some little dance number then, well, Glynda would have had no problem saying yes. But _no~_ Ruby _had_ to ask her to dance it in the most suspicious way possible. So suspicious that Glynda didn't have a response ready, which just made it even more suspicious-

But then Ozpin stepped in. He did that sometimes, to people he thought were fated to something. Whatever he was planning, probably to tell Ruby she had greatness within her or something and pontificate idly on the nature of the universe. That made her proud- the greatness part- because Ruby was her student, of course, and if the Headmaster was impressed with Ruby, then Glynda would of course be overjoyed, as she would with any other favored student.

And then, afterwards, he saw the lipstick on Glynda's cheek, which meant he knew, he knew that something was up.

Glynda hyperventilated for a moment. She'd caught up to the present, mentally, and therein lay the problem: What was she going to do now? Well, she could just play it off as an accident; Ruby was also wearing glitter eye-shadow, and was about tall enough to bump Glynda's cheek if she jumped a little. Or she maybe fell and there was a little bit of awkward touching; something to laugh about really, just a little unfortunate fall.

Well, Glynda still had time. Dare she think about the dance they just shared?

Ruby hadn't seemed interested in astronomy before now, so when she asked Glynda to go stargazing, Glynda thought that her pupil might have just wanted to learn something new, the student she was. Glynda allowed herself to believe that Ruby only wanted to look at tiny lights in the night sky. But as soon as the door closed, Ruby asked her to dance, and-

And Glynda had said yes. Well, no speaking was involved, but the yes was implicit when she took the young girl's hand and-

-held her tightly, led her in an unaccompanied waltz overlooked by spring starlight-

-stroked her waist and caressed her shoulder-

-stared longingly into her brilliant silver eyes-

Glynda put her face in her hands. She was definitely blushing, even if she didn't dare look at the mirror to confirm.

Why would she _do_ that? She _knew_ this was a bad idea; she shouldn't be encouraging her student, shouldn't be sending mixed messages.

Ruby'd shown up in a new dress; it wasn't worn and still had a couple of creases that hadn't come out through use. Why did she have a brand new dress? This dance wasn't supposed to be a big deal; the fall formal next semester maybe, but just the homecoming dance for the sake of having a dance before break.

Oh, like _she_ was one to talk, Glynda's inner demon said. Just look at her own dress; her own indulgent plea for attention. Well, Glynda's ego defended, it _had_ been, just, laying around in her closet, collecting dust and regrets. And maybe it was a little provocative; off the shoulders, a little low cut, short enough to show off her legs, but, well, if she'd randomly picked a dress of the many she owned, she might have ended up wearing this particular one, right? It was certainly in the bell curve of random chance. Nobody had to know it was deliberate.

But Ruby might take it the wrong way. If Ruby thought Glynda was dressing up for the young huntress, if she thought Glynda was receptive- that'd just encourage her, and that'd just be cruel. So why did she pick one of her more provocative dresses?

Glynda washed her face again. Her eyes looked a little more sunken (but that was just because she was so tired; she rationalized. That was just because it was so late, and she'd been up so long, and she'd been through a lot.). It totally didn't look like she'd aged since this morning.

Ruby had danced with her sister. She danced like she was young; carefree and exuberant, like she didn't notice (or didn't care) that she wasn't gracefulx Ruby was clumsy but earnest, inexperienced but honest. It was beautiful to watch her dance- with her team, with team JNPR, with Ozpin even, later when that happened.

And when Ruby walked over to her, with an air of confidence that occasionally lapsed into little glancing smiles at her hands or the floor or to Glynda's feet, all the moisture in Glyndas throat evaporated. She'd known that was coming- the dance invitation, the impending rejection and all the awkwardness that came with it- but it didn't seem any easier to go through with it-

But, you know, maybe Ruby had just just wanted to chat, and then they'd find an excuse to get away for a moment, and maybe they could dance a little- without scrutiny or inhibition- and it'd all be all right.

But of course, that didn't happen, and that was why Glynda was here, in a bathroom at midnight, washing glitter lipstick off her face. Glynda warmed a hand towel under a hot sink and then wrung it out and then pressed it against her cheek.

Ruby'd gone all out in other ways today- not just with her dress. Her hair was beautiful- lovingly feathered (it was too short to do any complex braids, Glynda mused, but it might look good with some clips, or maybe a headband. It'd _definitely_ look good mussed up; though Glynda told herself it'd be completely inappropriate to want to see what Ruby's bed-hair looked like), and she smelled less like cookie dough. Was she wearing perfume? She was definitely wearing make-up; that weird glitter kind. Glynda was acutely aware of that.

Glynda washed her cheek again.

There was still one prominent speck of glitter. Dust, why was this so hard to wash off?

Maybe she didn't want to wash it off, her inner demon teased.

There was no way she didn't. She'd never accept a kiss from a student, or someone so young, or someone -

Someone who didn't know better than to fall in love with her.

Glynda washed her face again. This thing- this whole thing Ruby wanted with her- was impossible for many reasons.

Glynda touched the part of her face around the remaining piece of glitter- the part of her face that Ruby had kissed, tentatively, sensually. Her skin was still warm, or maybe she just thought it was still warm, but either way it felt like it burned, on her cheek and on her memory.

Glynda pulled out a pair of tweezers to get at the last piece- and she realized her hand was shaking.

She took a breath to steady her hand and her thoughts and oh that was such a joke she'd been thinking in circles for half an hour now-

"Ow!" Glynda dropped the tweezers and examined the part of her cheek that she had jabbed. Nothing too bad- it wasn't even bleeding.

Well, she could try magic-

But pulling a piece of glitter off her face was a lot harder than magically drying her dress. That could be messy. And it might even result in her burning herself, the state she was in.

Well, it was late. Most of the kids had left, and if this was anything like last year, the dance committee would wait until tomorrow to clean up. There was nobody around who could even notice her cheek, probably.

So Glynda left the bathroom, a little cleaner but a lot more confused.

* * *

"I try not to fight Fate," Ozpin mused. He had pulled up some seats into the middle of the ballroom, amid fallen decorations and dimming lights. "She, or he or they, depending on your cosmology, always gets what she wants in the end." He took a sip from his mug. "So the best thing to do is work towards whatever Fate has in store for you."

"You don't believe in free will?" replied professor Port.

"I do," Ozpin took a sip from his mug, "To an extent." He pontificated to the air. "The destination is fixed, but we can choose which path we take. We can resist Fate, but events will conspire to drag us kicking and screaming through the brambles of misfortune. So if something happens that you don't like, well, it was Fated, and it would have done you no good to try to resist it."

"It seems you're just saying that you shouldn't try to prevent bad things from happening," said Port. "That seems very defeatist. I can't imagine that philosophy being applied to good things happening in your life."

"Well you see" sputtered Oobleck, "You don't analyze how you feel when good things happen to you You just enjoy them So there is no reason to contemplate what transpired to bring them about or to regret not having gone down a different path"

"I supposed that makes sense, if you think of only the past as set in stone," Ozpin said.

"I'm sure your philosophy does you well," Port took a swig from his cup, "But I would prefer to believe I am in control of my destiny."

Ozpin took a long sip of his tea. "It's funny to me that you think that."

"I have to wonder has this philosophy worked out for you." Port said.

"I'm sure you do."

"So how do you know which direction Fate wants you to go?" Port eyed the bottom of his cup and reached for the bottle to refill. "That strikes me as an unreliable method for determining your courses of action."

"It can be." Ozpin said. "For example, it seems Glynda was fated to have glitter on her cheek. I regret suggesting to her to try to wash it off, as it seems to have only wasted her time."

Glynda reddened. She'd hoped it wasn't noticeable. Her coworkers didn't say anything when she sat down, and Port didn't say anything when she poured some of his brandy into her tea.

Glynda had heard Ozpin's life philosophy many times before, and she often disagreed. She often vehemently disagreed, especially in the aftermath of certain tragedies, of certain failures, when said life philosophy felt callous and . Over the years, they'd had more or less that same conversation every so often, but Glynda was too preoccupied to reiterate her usual counterpoint for the benefit of Port and Oobleck. Besides, she was sure they had heard her side of the debate before; surely it had come up before? They'd been coworkers for years now, even if there was a lot they hadn't told each other.

"How'd you get glitter on your cheek, Glynda?" Port asked. There was a lot they were never _going_ to tell each other as well.

"Well," Glynda stated. She took a breath. "I wasn't watching where I was going, and I collided with a student who had too much glitter make-up on."

"Yes I will never understand fashion We had these beehive hair-dos when I was growing up Massive hairspray requirement Sometimes fostered hives of literal bees Very awkward potentially"

"Aw yes," Ozpin took a sip from his mug, "The malediction of inconstant awareness strikes again. It seems the few times you're not paying attention are the few times you really wish you had been."

"Do we have to always see where we're going?" said Port, "I sometimes find that I find the happy accidental meetings interesting."

"Also that's the anthropic principle again You don't regret every time you don't pay attention but the only time you regret is when you don't pay attention so you remember it more"

"I agree with Port," Ozpin said. "Do we plan our destinies? Do we plan who we fight? Who we save? Who we fall in love with?"

Glynda choked on her tea. She shakily put her cup on its plate and pounded her chest.

"I once bent my knee to scratch my calf and kicked a young child in the stomach Took five minutes to cheer her up Terribly embarrassing Hate thinking about it" Oobleck sputtered.

"These things happen," Port said.

Oobleck turned to Glynda. "At least you didn't hurt anyone else" Oobleck took a quick sip from his mug, "Or did you I would hope not"

"N-no." Glynda said. That stutter was because she was choking, not because she was nervous.

Glynda hoped she didn't hurt someone else as well.

* * *

It was late, and Ruby, groggy but exuberant, opened the door to their dorm room. Blake and Weiss had gotten into an argument and Ruby wasn't going to let them ruin her mood, so she left them in the great hall, yelling about something or something.

"Oh, Crescent, it was wonderful," she said, twirling around. Bad idea; with her level of tiredness she almost fell over. She was still in the dress Weiss bought her, and it poofed a little as she spun. Ruby was very entertained

Ruby retraced some of the dance moves she'd made- the stepping, the swinging, the part when Glynda hugged her from behind and she was so warm-

Ruby fell backwards on her bed. She turned to Crescent. "It was really, truly wonderful, Crescent. "

Crescent did nothing, propped against the dresser.

"Well, she turned her cheek when I tried-"

Crescent continued to do nothing. Ruby frowned.

"That doesn't mean she doesn't like me-"

Ruby crossed her arms. "I thought you were on my side, Crescent."

Again, Crescent did nothing.

"Aww, I'm sorry," Ruby said as she sat up and pulled her weapon onto her lap at ran her hand along the stock. "But I guess I'm a little defensive."

Crescent did nothing.

Ruby closed her eyes and exhaled.

"~five more weeks of school, and then finals, and then break." Ruby said aloud. "I don't know what my plan is. I think I'll let it grow organically, y'know?"

And Ruby closed her eyes and fell asleep. Presumably, Crescent did nothing.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

It was the day after the dance; not enough time after that marginal disappointment wrapped in a modicum of mediocrity to file it away, to tuck it behind her. The music was subpar, the decorations and food were subpar, and, Weiss hated to admit, her own efforts at securing a date had been subpar. But whatever. The dance also marked the end of something else; the last vestiges of spring were fading into the worst season of the year, and Weiss found herself justifiably grumpy. What made her a little more grumpy was bumping into Blake outside their dorm room.

Like, what was Blake's problem? She was always mad at Weiss for some dumb reason, that dumb, stupid jerk, no matter how hard Weiss tried to be nice. And Weiss tried so hard. But whatever.

Weiss's posture was always perfect, but she took a moment and a little effort to make it more perfect, and she frowned haughtily and ran her hand through her hair, feigning confidence. Blake stood that pose of hers, a little limp and seemingly relaxed, but ready to jump at any provocation. It was like Blake was always tense and knew she should relax, but could only give the appearance of being relaxed. Blake eyed Weiss and blinked, looking just annoyed enough to not complain about it.

"Hey Blake," Weiss said, "Do you know if Ruby's in our dorm room?"

Blake's face didn't change. "No, she's actually-"

"Oh good," Weiss opened the door, "Because no offense to her, but she's only 15 and I really don't want to walk in on her tangled in her bedsheets moaning Glynda's name-"

"OH MY DUST WEISS YOU'RE THE WORST!" squeaked Ruby.

Weiss flinched and turned her head and opened her mouth and then closed it.

Blake finished pointing, and her face now looked a little bemused. Hrmph. "-right behind you," Blake finished.

Weiss cleared her throat and then rubbed her ears. "Your voice is so high pitched, you know?"

Ruby bit her cheek and stomped past the heiress into their dorm room.

Blake looked even more amused though. She hid her mouth under behind the tips of her fingers as the three girls filed into their dorms and went to their individual desks. Weiss was glad something marginally good came of this little faux pas.

Ruby sat down at her desk and gathered her books. After a few moments, she turned to Weiss. "And for your information," Ruby said, her cheeks flushed and eyes closed in attempt to maintain some dignity, "I don't- I don't do that. So you don't need to worry about walking in on me."

Weiss hadn't remembered exactly what she was in here to do, so she'd been looking through her wardrobe. She turned to her teammate and her mouth went flat. "Really."

Blake walked over to the bedpost and leaned back against it. (Weiss had long ago accepted that their horrid hackjob excuses for amateur bunkbeds were miraculously able to withstand being slept on, leaned against, jumped on, and on at least one occasion in Yang's case, having sex on) Blake's arms were crossed and she had a nice little smirk on her face. "It's a natural thing to do," Blake said.

Ruby pouted. "But I don't!"

"But you have a bottle of lube in your desk," Blake said. Weiss didn't exactly know what kind of look she shot at the bookworm.

Ruby frowned immensely. "That's MACHINE LUBRICANT Blake! You don't use that to ... to do stuff with any sensitive part of your body." Ruby's face was beet red at this point. I may have been amusing.

"Just out of curiosity," Blake failed to conceal that she was enjoying herself. "Are you capable of saying the word 'masturbate'?"

Weiss knew she shouldn't have laughed, but Ruby's face was priceless. Besides, friends were supposed to make fun of each other to bond, right? It was probably fine.

"Of course I can." Ruby said. She breathed in and failed to say anything afterwards.

"Well...?" Weiss said. Over to her left, Blake chuckled.

Ruby scrunched her face and opened her mouth a couple times. Eventually she closed her eyes and straightened her back and said, "I- I just don't want to, right now."

Blake shot a hand over her mouth, but that did nothing to hide the part of her smile that reached her eyes. Weiss looked back to Ruby before Blake could catch her staring at her supposed archenemy. "Ok, how about, any euphemism for masturbation?" Blake said.

"Yeah, like 'Tending your secret garden?'" Weiss suggested.

Blake raised an eyebrow at Weiss. "Oh, I was going to accept anything like 'alone time' or 'personal grooming,' but sure," she turned to Ruby, "Any wildly creative euphemism you want to say, I'll accept."

Ruby opened her mouth and closed it.

"'Paddling the pink canoe?'" Weiss suggested. Ruby reddened even more.

"Buttering your muffin'?" Blake suggested. Ruby let out some sort of choking sound.

"'Finger Painting'?"

"'Check-' -'Finger Painting?!'" Blake suddenly doubled over laughing. Weiss did too.

"Had -hic- hadn't heard that one before," Blake managed to say through her laughs. Blake and Weiss shot each other a happy set of looks; Blake was rarely this happy, especially in Weiss's presence. The heiress was glad.

"CAN YOU GUYS STOP PLEASE?" Ruby squeaked.

The two of them laughed for a little longer. Ruby was really not amused, which didn't help cut down on the time spent laughing.

Eventually, Blake had enough (barely enough, but enough) composure to put words together. "Yang finger paints all the time, you know."

"I know," Ruby's eye twitched and she had to refresh her poker face, "That's part of the reason I don't."

"But everyone does it," Blake said, "Yang's even had girls over at least twice."

"And I've walked in on Blake's impromptu finger painting sessions," Weiss said. Blake didn't laugh, for some reason. Whatever.

Blake turned to her, her face a mix of emotions, but there was some anger in there, unmistakably. She opened her mouth, and then she closed it. "Yes. And Weiss likes to rub money on all her orifices, naked."

"For your information I wear a bathing suit whenever I swim in my money." Weiss put her hands on her hips. She was still unsure how Blake found out about it. But she wasn't going to let it show that it bothered her.

Blake said something back, and Weiss mentally laid out her three part counterpoint. Blake wasn't aware of a lot of the rigors of debate, and a lot of her arguments ended up in circles. Weiss decided she didn't feel bad that she won every argument they had.

But Blake was always game to argue, and she actually did listen, which was more than a lot of people did, so Weiss always took her stoic teammate up on the debate.

And at some point, Ruby slipped out of the room.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Past four months, Blake had walked in on her roommates doing lots of weird things. Not just hormonal things. Not just private things.

Blake liked quiet places. Liked being curled in corner of library, arms reach of a stack of books. One window on third floor; faced rising sun; great place to wake up. Alcove behind vending machine: very warm; refrigeration heat outtake.

Ruby spent a lot of time at the weapon's forge, on the combat fields, and, recently, with Glynda. She smelled like oil and sweat sometimes, like sugar all of the time. Smelled like Yang was in the gym most nights. Yang sometimes snuck out for entire weekends for different sort of exercise.

Schnee had very strict schedule; physical training every day (aerobics on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, some sort of dancing Tuesday and Thursday, intensive combat training on weekends), followed by sessions in school's business center, helping run Schnee Dust Cult. In free time, Schnee took walks in school gardens, stared at her scroll, made unkind remarks at Faunus students to their faces and behind their backs and just in general, when she grumbled under her breath. She showered in the early morning; liked to sing; terrible singing voice. Her human menstruation cycle began on the 12th of every month. Every other Sunday, Schnee called some sort of nanny; summarized her life. She did laundry every other Wednesday, some sort of full-body skin care thing every three weeks, usually followed by money-baths.

More often than not, dorm room was empty. More often than not, Blake or her teammates could rely on dorm room as place of privacy.

Ruby dancing with her scythe, conversing, as if it were alive. Name was Crescent Rose. Rose. Supposed to be Ruby's daughter? Sister? Wife? Stranger forms of therapy, though. If it gave Ruby comfort, why judge? Rather, judge Ruby's inability to lock door.

Yang had snuck in a girl or two or five, past four months. Blake heard them from hallway; avoided embarrassment. One time, stumbled upon handcuffs and aftercare kit; Yang wasn't as careless as she tried to appear; good, considering her particular kinks. Blake once considered bringing up own interests; decided against it; avoided embarrassment.

And Schnee bathing in money: why? Like seriously. Couldn't be comfortable, rubbing her gross hairless human grubflesh, completely naked, on little cylinders of zinc and copper.

One time, though, Weiss had phone conversation with someone personal (Father? Sister?); tearful, vulnerable. Almost made heiress relatable. Blake considered offering consolation. Thought better of it though; avoided embarrassment.

Tonight, Ruby was doing some 'late night study sessions' with Glynda. Well, maybe quotations were unfair: Ruby never came back smelling like sweat or lipstick from those. Still just sugar.

Yang had snuck into town (easier than bringing someone back here, probably). Weiss in cubicle in business center; making self richer, making world worse for Faunus.

So; Blake had dorm to herself. She could see in the dark; didn't turn on lights. Double checked dorm was empty (habit from previous life), locked doors, shut blinds. She breathed; kicked off shoes, pulled off jacket. She sat on her bed. Just to be sure, she put her bedsheet over her head.

And she carefully unwove the bow that bound her ears.

Ears were matted with sweat, stiff with ache. Ached even more when she wiggled them. Took a moment to remember how to move them.

Blake ran her fingers along ear's length, winced only for first moments. Involuntary moan; Faunus ears were never meant to be constricted in such a way. Could almost resent Beacon for making her do this. No, better to just resent world inequality.

Blake then pulled down her pants, just a couple centimeters. Rubbed the stump that remained of her tail. Rubbing helped the ache, but phantom pain couldn't be massaged away. Tried to flick a tail that wasn't there; helped a little.

And then someone tried to open the door.

Blake clutched her mouth, almost fell off her bed.

Door opened after unlocking, high-pitched whiny voice complained about the door being locked. Blake bunched the sheets around her head to hide the silhouette of her ears. Couldn't' seem to find the end of covers, so didn't show her face. Lights went on; bedsheet brightened several shades. Vague silhouette of Schnee.

Blake didn't need to see to picture heiress's insufferable smirk. "What are you doing?" said Schnee.

"Nothing. None of your business. Go away," Blake grumbled.

"If you want, I can leave if you want some, aha," Schnee said. Somehow, Schnee's tone made annoying voice even more annoying. "Alone time in the deep end. If you want."

Blake breathed; calming effect. "I thought you were in the business center."

"Wrapped up early tonight," Schnee said. "We acquired a new subsidiary and we were just finalizing the details of the restructuring."

Those were business words; fighting words. Schnee was trying to sound smart; smarter than her; if Blake asked what any of that meant, Schnee would take it as confirmation of success.

"Taking success out from the feet of other people; how very business-like. How very Schnee-like," Blake spat.

"Recognizing and fostering talent," Schnee said, "Grooming good ideas into great ones."

That was a bad move, Blake realized, talking about business ethics. Apparently real ethics didn't apply; she was making tenuous connections to her own expertise. Shouldn't argue; argued anyway. Temptation too strong; desire to wipe smirk of Schnee's face too strong.

Also; sitting half-naked in bedsheets not most dignified.

Eventually, argument went in circles. Schnee took that as victory. Blake fumed under bedsheets.

Schnee left. Blake lay back on her bed.

Well, her most vile and hated enemy already assumed worst of her. Might as well...

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Glynda sat in her office grading papers, the Wednesday after the dance. She didn't have to, the students didn't expect today's homework back until next week, and normally Glynda'd be enjoying herself- talks with Ozpin, catching up on reading, researching magic- that sort of thing- but today she was way too anxious, so she thought she'd try to grade some papers. Something monotonous, she thought, should quiet her mind.

Thought being the operative word. She had a certain red-haired student on her mind way too much, and now was no exception.

Well, just as a thought exercise- a point for intellectual honesty merely- what would dating Ruby be like?

It was, of course, impossible; dating a student. But because of legal reasons, because of school doctrine and federal codes, because of the social consensus. And those were all supposed to exist for good reasons (supposed to, being the key word). So if Glynda just went through the logic, she'd arrive at the same conclusions, that she and Ruby were a bad idea, and armed with the security of a logical conclusion, she could stop thinking about it. The dating her student part, she meant; she'd probably still think about Ruby a lot.

So one; Ruby was underage. That meant Glynda would have to turn Ruby down. Young people didn't have the experience to make wise decisions about their love lives until they hit their eighteenth birthday.

Ok, fine, maybe that was a little arbitrary, but the fact remained that Ruby was very young. She didn't have any relationship experience, any life experience. No past achievements or history or anything. Their relationship would be very lopsided; Glynda would always be the teacher, always be the mentor, and Glynda would have to guide her through everything.

Ok, so intellectual honesty; maybe that'd be nice. It'd be like all the good things about being a teacher amplified, for one person who really cared about her and wouldn't graduate and go away forever after four years. But then Glynda'd always be worried that she'd be taking over Ruby's life. Did she trust herself to let Ruby grow up on her own terms?

And did she forever want to play the teaching role?

Well, the last time she'd been in a long term relationship with a perfect equal, they never had any stories to tell each other (because they were both there for everything), they constantly bickered about who got to top, and they ended up in a bloody screaming fistfight to the death.

So upside to dating someone like Ruby; one or more of those things were less likely to happen.

Well, now she was thinking about long term relationship viability. Was that bad- that she was starting to seriously consider it?

Wait! Was that what she wanted?

Well, she couldn't do just a fling with a student (not ethically, or legally.) If anything were to come of her and Ruby, it'd be long term.

Glynda idly opened her desk, to a wrapped picture frame. She'd made digital duplicates of it as soon as the technology was available, so she didn't treat it as fragile as she used to. Now only the emotions behind it were fragile.

The colors hadn't been too saturated to begin with, and their faded signatures had had to be traced over, years later, and time only made them seem more tired. Seven hunters, old beloved friends from a time when the world was more dangerous but somehow more carefree, more honest. When their only enemies were the Grimm: external, looming monsters, strange and unknown but combatable; conquerable. They were known unknowns, and uncovering their secrets was a cause for celebration. Now, their enemies were people, and learning more about their current enemies just let you know who you couldn't trust anymore.

Some of the people in the photo were dead, and besides Ozpin, she hand't any real contact with any of them anymore, but they were still a part of her life and her history regardless.

Yesterday, in a moment of profound vulnerability, she'd shown the photo to Ruby. Not out of the blue- Ruby asked about being a huntress- about living by your wits in the wild, and Glynda had to plumb her older memories for a suitable story. And Glynda pulled out the photo and bid Ruby to sit next to her as Glynda spoke about things she had thought she'd forgotten.

She was in the middle, locked shoulders between three other women; Mombi, Locasta, and Gengema (they had known each other since forever), with Ozpin off to the side (he still had brown hair here) in a playful half-headlock from Ruggedo (to this day one of the biggest men Glynda'd ever met) who's beard was still a little burned, and Ozma, (back before she knew she was a princess) looking kind of nervous in the center, having displaced Ozpin as the newcomer of the group. They'd just saved a village when this photo was taken, and were hopeful and happy and naive as they'd ever be.

Glynda immediately had regrets about telling Ruby about her past; that twisting vicegrip in your gut once you've laid yourself bare and you wonder if someone- someone important to you- will continue to see you in the same way, or if they'll -

And Ruby smiled warmly and asked about her team composition; a question that Glynda could respond to personally, or more abstractly. Ruby was interested in her old life, but didn't want to pry if Glynda wanted to keep it a secret, was what her question told her.

And Glynda cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses and shifted back into teacher mode. "This was before we'd optimized to four-person cells," she explained, "These were the people I'd hunted with the longest; we'd branch into other groups sometimes, with other hunters."

Back when they only fought Grimm, more firepower was almost always better, she explained. That's why they had four mages and only one tank. They talked for another hour about how different the world used to be-

And when the conversation turned back to her old friends, Glynda felt a little more comfortable- her voice wasn't dry when she mentioned the names of her old friends, and Ruby was all wide eyes and awed smiles; the perfect listener.

"Thank you," Ruby said, after Glynda finished her most recent story- "I'm really glad you shared that with me."

"I- you're welcome," Glynda said. She cleared her throat and adjusted her glasses. "It's- well, it's a bit of a personal story, so I'll thank you right back, for listening to an- to me ramble."

Ruby fluttered her eyelashes. "Always. Can you tell me another one?"

And Glynda found she couldn't say no.


	4. A Training Exercise

It was four weeks until the end of the classes, and Ruby had scheduled a playdate for Crescent for today, even though summertime in the outdoor dueling areas was brutal. The days was cloudless and the dry, abrasive air seemed to make the heat even worse. Weiss was the mvp today, having conjured a plumbum of ice for each of the team. Blake was reluctant to accept hers, but the sweat beading around her brow eventually convinced her to swallow her pride.

The indoor arenas were booked for the next few weeks, and that was much too long than Ruby'd allow Cresent not to have some exercise. It'd been easy enough to talk team JNPR into some practice matches (Jaune was especially eager to practice- and a lot more proficient at fighting, for some reason- ever since he killed that Ursa on one of Glynda's field-trips).

Ruby led a huddle with the rest of her team. She went over their broad strategic objectives; reiterated team JNPR's strengths, discussed some of their strategies and reminded everyone, including herself, of their limitations and common tactical blunders.

"And one last really important thing," Ruby said at the end, "Glynda might watch this fight."

Weiss's eyebrows raised a bit. Blake smiled softly and Yang bit her cheek and tried to look nonchalant.

"Sooooo," Ruby said, "It'd be super cool if we could absolutely destroy them. No pressure."

Yang and Blake and Weiss shared some looks and some grins. "Shouldn't be too hard."

Ruby smiled back and and they broke huddle.

It'd be Concurrent Elimination this time; the display would track everyone's aura and if anyone's got depleted, there'd be a buzzer and the trainee in question would be out of the match. Since in real combat situations, a quick rest or focused meditation could bring one's Aura back up, teams wouldn't lose in this format until everyone on a side had been knocked down. This meant that a losing side could buy time while their teammates got back in the game, and you ignored anyone who was already knocked out of the match at your peril. (And no, Ruby had checked; double-tapping was strictly prohibited. There was a state-of-the-art infirmary in the school, but the best course of action was still to not get hurt without your aura to protect you.)

Yelling "Ollie Oxenfree" wasn't specifically required when you got back in, but some people couldn't resist.

So the teams met and shook hands and squared off. Some bleachers off to the side overlooked theirs and three other arenas, and various students and faculty were sitting in it, watching one of the three arenas it overlooked (There was another fight going on in the arena at the far side).

A familiar blonde figure nodded almost imperceptibly at her when Ruby looked her way. Ruby blushed and waved back.

And then the starting buzzer buzzed, and team RWBY and JNPR jumped at each other, pairing off into four sets of duels.

Ruby circled Jaune slowly, he had his sword and shield up in a defensive posture, and the nervous look on his face told Ruby that, on the off-chance he did garner the nerve to attack, it'd probably be wildly telegraphed and almost definitely accompanied by a girlish scream. Ruby hoped Jaune'd improved enough to put up a good fight, and not just because she wanted to see her friend succeed as a hunter.

Yang seemed to be doing alright with Nora, even if it looked like she was doing her semblance gambit. Weiss was dueling Pyrrha, to a standstill, and Blake was doing some shadow stuff at Ren.

So Ruby stepped forward and tried out a few of her more flashy moves.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ren lunged at Blake. She didn't really react; didn't raise her weapons, didn't shift her center of gravity, only smirked slightly. Which, in retrospect, should have tipped him off that this wasn't the real Blake.

The simulacrum vanished as soon as Ren's blade would have impacted. To his left, Blake smirked and slashed at his back.

Ren parried, and the blade dissolved into black sand that then dissolved into nothing. To his right, Blake was in a defensive stance. Ren shot at her, and Blake dissolved into sand again.

And after a few minutes, Ren was surrounded in an ever shifting parade of shadow puppets. And then came Blake's voice in a mad, guttural whisper. "~darrrkkneesssssss~"

And the whispering shadows multiplied, and once they filled an entire circle around him they grew, they grew until they eclipsed the school and the forest and blotted out the sun, and then they grew towards him; the circle of visible terrain around him rapidly shrinking as humanoid shadows grasped towards him.

Ren lowered his weapons but not his guard, looking around for any sign of attack from a specific direction. None came, so he fell back to a weapon he used less often.

"How can you believe in darkness," Ren stated, "When but a single light can hold all the world's darkness at bay?"

And the laughter appeared around him; sinister, low and horrible. _**"Is that how you see the light?"**_

Ren slashed at a snaking shadow to his left. It dissipated into impalpable black sand. A spray of bullets erupted from his right and Ren kneeled to lower his profile.

 _ **"Light is an active force,"**_ Blake's voice said, _**"It requires fuel; it requires**_ **sacri** **fice.** _ **It uses up itself, in order to exist."**_

Ren shot into the shadows. Blake's voice only laughed.

 _ **"Your soul will dim and die one day,"**_ said the whispers, _**"Even the sun itself will wheeze its final solar death gasps into the unfeeling blackness of space and be dim forever more. The only thing darkness needs to win,"**_ -now the shadows eased their undulations, _**"is ... patience."**_

And Ren became acutely aware that his aura was weakening.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

During her engagement, Pyrrha wondered if using a shield against a piercing weapon might, perhaps, be just a little unfair, but she'd take the easy victory if it allowed her to keep an eye on Jaune. Luckily, Jaune's opponent, Ms. Rose, was taking the opportunity to try out some elaborate jumping moves. Pyrrha doubted she could help her leader enough to beat Ms. Rose if the scythe-reaper deigned to exert herself fully, but a little polarity in the right situations could help out Jaune immensely.

"Ho! Ha ha!" Pyrrha's opponent said, "Guard! Turn! Parry!" she said again, making flashy yet precise and efficient swings of her rapier. Ms. Schnee never let her guard down, though a less skilled combatant would be tricked into seeing an opening that wasn't there, and if that less skill combatant were also less restrained, she might attempt to attack during that opening, no doubt leaving herself open to a follow-through.

But since Phyrrha was both skilled and restrained, t was easy enough to hold her ground, but that prompted her to consider that, perhaps, this all was just an elaborate distraction. She looked over at the rest of her team; Nora seemed to be doing fine, though Ms. Belladonna had entrapped Ren in a Magical Darkness Sphere. And Ms. Rose didn't seem serious yet; they'd be in trouble if that happened too early.

"Dodge! Spin! Ha!" Ms. Schnee shouted, "Thrust!"

Pyrrha idly sidestepped a lunge and was only a little disappointed that Jaune didn't see her do it.

What was Ms. Schnee's gambit here? Pray thee, just distraction? Was Ren going to bite it in the darkness? Yang had some sort of damage absorption powers, but Pyrrha was blanking on the specifics.

And speaking of Ren, Pyrrha recalled an anecdote he had told her, once ago; three monks tried to open a door. The first broke it down. The second pulled out the hinges, and the door fell open. The third one lifted a hand to knock, and thus entered with the greatest haste. So, if Pyrrha couldn't deduce Weiss's strategy, why not take the most direct route?

"So what are you attempting to accomplish, Ms. Schnee?" Pyrrha said, over her shield.

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Ms. Schnee responded.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Weiss fought with a fluidity and grace that came from pressure. She did well under pressure; she'd trained her whole life (shut up; it was technically true) for combat, and now she just had to go through the motions again. And Pyrrha was a world-class fighter; it was truly an honor to fight someone like her. Even if that meant Weiss's elaborate attempts to provoke an overcommitment didn't seem to be working right now. But whatever. She was still buying time. Her plan would still work.

Regardless of her opinion on the validity of Ruby as a leader, she knew the importance of discipline (shut up; so what if maybe she forgot it at first? People make mistakes.), so when Ruby told her to do something impressive, well, she didn't argue. She'd had a plan prepared. They'd see. They'd _all_ see. (hahaha)

* * *

And then Pyrrha noticed! She actually asked Weiss her plan. Usually people seemed way too preoccupied with themselves, but Weiss guessed it was too much to ask for everyone to be as thoughtful and aware as she was.

"You're wearing metal armor," Weiss said with an air of victory, "I've been coating myself in a thin layer of ice this whole time. Eventually you'll overheat, and I will win."

And Pyrrha laughed. -How- how dare she? Weiss's gut sunk and her cheeks reddened. "That's your strategy?" Pyrrha said, "My outfit includes a microskirt and bare shoulders. Besides," Pyrrha stepped forward with her shield held high; Weiss didn't have an opening and was forced back. "Sweat is indicative of heroism. No warrior would be ashamed because they perspire too much, nor quit for the abundance of such."

And then Jaune was pushed back besides Pyrrha. "Speak- {pant} for yourself. Bare shoulders, huh? Gotta- {pant}- gotta look into that-"

"Yeah-" Ruby said, from besides Weiss. "Long cloaks and a black wardrobe are _not_ summer combat attire."

"-'might {pant} even consider the microskirt," Jaune said.

And for whatever reason, right then Pyrrha paused for a moment, staring at the adjacent duel, which allowed Weiss to set a repulsion rune directly behind Pyrrha without the spartan knowing. It was then trivial to trick her to step back into it, giving Weiss a few free shots at an airborn target and a few moments to try to come up with a better strategy.

Ruby jumped next to her. "Wanna trade?" she asked. Weiss guessed Jaune wasn't providing as impressive a fight as Ruby wanted.

Weiss frowned. Well, she hadn't exactly been winning that last exchange, and apparently her brilliant plan was laughable and dumb. So whatever.

"Very well," Weiss said. "I'm sure you'll have a more impressive fight with Pyrrha."

"What? No, I meant, did you want to fight someone easier?"

Weiss shot Ruby the dirtiest look she could. "Excuse _you,_ Ms. farming-implement-weapon, but I am handing myself just fine."

Ruby threw her hands up in exasperation, "Just trying to look out for you. (And Crescent's just _based_ on a farming implement.)"

"Well don't," Weiss said. Ruby smiled that dumb smile of hers.

Hrmph.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Nora shifted her weapon into hammer mode and swung a wild arc. Fun! Most times that was a bad idea, but this entire fight Nora had prepared for preemptive blows and attacks of opportunity that didn't come. She kept her guard up just in case, ready to jump away or do the limbo at the last moment or shuffle to the side (like, party-rock shuffle, if she could remember the moves), in case Yang was trying to lure her into a false sense of security.

The blow was easily dodgeable (Nora figured she'd use the momentum to reposition herself when it missed) but Yang just lowered her center of gravity and let the hammer collide with her lower left ribs.

"Mmmphr," Yang grunted, "That' the best you got, pinkie?"

"Nope!" explained Nora. She spun her hammer the opposite direction, turning her back to Yang -this was a test; if Yang didn't try to attack her when she was open a fifth time, then something was probably up- and that something probably wasn't good :(! Nora spun her hammer around to strike Yang in the stomach. Yang just shifted her weight to take the blow and smiled.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"Ooomph," Yang said again as Nora's warhammer struck her right in the sternum. A bead of sweat traveled down her cheek, and not just because of the heat.

"Heh," Yang gasped, "I guess that was adequate. Wanna hit me again?"

Nora smiled and threw an upperblow that Yang blocked with both her forearms. The blow shook her shoulders and left a rather large after-ache at the impact site.

"Alright, one more," Yang gasped, "Face this time. C'mon. C'mon." she whispered.

Now, Nora looked a little perturbed. She frowned slightly as she swung her hammer in a wide arc into the side of Yang's head. Yang's head snapped to the side as her body adjusted to keep her balance. She spat a bit of blood, her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing really, really heavy.

"Alright, I lied;" Yang whispered, "One more. C'mon. Stomach again."

"Yang!" Ruby squeaked from somewhere else on the battlefield. "Stop being so creepy!"

Yang was vaguely aware she heard Ruby say something like 'and that goes for you too Blake!', but Yang just braced to take the last blow and closed her eyes and focused on her semblance.

Nora's next blow echoed through her body, sending tiny, exuberant, chaotic reverberations through the point of impact: just below her lowest left rib, and outwards through her arms and legs and neck, sending tingles upon every inch of her skin. They hit the ends of her fingertips and nose and feet and bounced back, less chaotic now, all heading single file to a space below her diaphragm, coalescing in a little red ball of ecstatic aching pain.

Yang looked up, her eyes red and her hair on fire and the little red ball inside her split in two, traveling up each shoulder and down each arm, leaving a trail of pleasant aches until they reached her fists- drawn downwards in the wind-up to a double uppercut- and erupted out of her hands in fiery rage.

"Ren now!" Nora yelled.

And Yang's footing slipped, and she looked down and realized too late that she was, somehow, facing the wrong way, and that whatever her knockout blow hit had not, in fact, been Nora-

"YAAANNNGG YOOUUUUU SUUUUUUUUCCCCK...!" receded Weiss's voice in the distance. Up in the summer sky, a tiny star twinkled in the blue.\

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ren had found the hole in Blake's shadow world relatively soon, but any method he had to exploit it wouldn't knock Blake out of the fight, and it'd just tip Blake off to the flaw in her technique.

So he opted to try to meditate in the shadow-bubble, hoping to recharge his Aura faster than whatever Blake was doing was draining it.

And eventually, like he knew it would, out of the darkness, Nora's voice called, a lifeline to the world of light.

Ren feinted right and broke through the bubble of darkness. Nora was where he thought she was, about to take a OHKO from Yang.

So Ren just re-positioned things a little bit. Nora helped.

Yang looked a little horrified as she looked at the sky.

Ren landed a series of strikes that ended up knocking Yang's feet out from under her, leaving her open for Nora to land a heavy overhead knock-out blow.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Nora only had a moment to admire her handiwork, and then the new star in the sky, and then at Ren (He hadn't suffered any weird harm in whatever Blake had been doing- phew) before she had to dodge a backhand blade from team RWBY's ninja.

When Blake jumped back, she was three Blakes. (Did that mean she could give herself hugs any time? Jealous!)

"Which one's real?" said one of the three of the Blakes as they all lowered their centers of gravity and assumed defensive stances.

"Be a shame if you picked the wrong one," said another of the Blakes. She'd make an awesome barbershop quartet if her simulacrums- simulacrumbs? - could speak at the same time. And if she could sing, but actually you didn't really need to know how to sing if you wanted to sing you'd just do it-

Oh wait, Blake #2 had said something to her.

"I pick," Nora said, priming her weapon into launcher mode, "All of you!"

And Blake opened her mouth in a silent 'oh' as a heart-shaped barrage of grenades landed all around her.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Jaune pointed behind her. "Hey look at that distraction!"

Ruby smirked. Like she'd fall for that. She kept her eyes on Jaune as he lunged, wild and sloppy. She let him try a few times, effortlessly dodging the ensuing clumsy blows.

Jaune reached overhead and Ruby focused her aura into her left hand and, as Jaune swung downward, caught the blade between her thumb and pointer finger. She stepped closer and smiled her biggest smile in Jaune's face. Jaune whimpered.

Ruby kicked him into the dirt, and for his credit, Jaune didn't land completely on his back. Alright, that was the last super-impressive move Ruby wanted to try; time to finish Jaune and then move on to the rest of the team.

And then the buzzer announced that Weiss's aura had been depleted. And then Yang's, and then Blake's.

Oh. _That's_ what this was; it was Jaune; the distraction was always Jaune. Ruby'd fallen for a double-bluff.

Ruby looked at where Blake had fell and the crater where Yang was in and the part of the sky Weiss had disappeared to and sighed. "Dust _dammit_ you guys," she said.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Nora and Ren shared a relieved triumphant exhale before Jaune landed between them, blubbering and flailing. Pyrrha was on guard first; a few bolts impacted her shield, and she gestured for team JNPR to form up for the last stretch of the fight.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ruby swung Crescent behind her and she fired, activating her semblance in time with the recoil to boost herself into the middle of team JNPR. She managed to hit all four of them with the opening swing.

Now she was in the middle of all of them, with a reach weapon. She hoped they'd realize that and lunge forward. As part of her next motion, Ruby shifted her grip on Crescent closer to the blade, her form as if she were wielding an oversized sickle, tucking the handle in her armpit to stick out behind her. She spun and the blade hit Ren in the leg as a soft 'whump' signaled that somebody, probably Jaune, had been caught by the shaft behind her. Ruby spun around again and again, knocking Nora in the shin and narrowly missing Pyrrha. Jaune stepped out of range first, Nora and Ren were trying in vain to grapple her, but Pyrrha just laughed enthusiastically when she was knocked back.

Ruby didn't smile. She made no noise now; no screaming, no grunting, no puns or one-liners; just focus.

Pyrrha was up now, having lunged forward with a heroic strike. Ruby dodged and hooked Crescent's blade behind Pyrrha's waist, behind the shield. She sidestepped 15 degrees and jumped slightly so that a bullet from Crescent would hit Jaune's leg as the recoil slashed Pyrrha's back.

Ruby continued to run around the spartan, shooting at Jaune and Nora and Ren as she twirled Pyrrha around. Ruby's aura felt Crocea Mors across the back of her shoulder and the peppering of Stormflower against her back, but bullets glanced off Pyrrha's leg guard and a hammer blow resounded against Akoúo̱, so Pyrrha was getting hit as well.

Nora was now behind Pyrrha, set up perfectly for a few sniper shots. At point blank, Crescent's bullets were devastating, but they seemed to miss more than she'd have figured, even if the weapon was pinned against another independent body- perhaps it was someone's semblance at work.

Pyrrha tried to jump back, pulling Crescent and Ruby forward. She succeed in knocking Ruby off her balance, but the reaper just turned the fumble into a body-lunge and headed-butted Pyrrha in the nose.

Pyrrha's combat culture included wrestling, so close quarters wasn't something Ruby wanted to be in with her for long. So Ruby aimed for Pyrrha's heart; she pulled Jaune into the tangle, and he certainly didn't know how to land to minimize sprains or shift his weight to avoid impacts during hand-to-hand combat. He was hurt more than Ruby in the ensuing melee.

And it worked; Pyrrha tried to back out after only four seconds, her gung-ho expression replaced with a little shock and fear, and Ruby sent her off with a spin and a slash and a blast and a rather dazed knight, but in the process she lost her grip on Crescent- which had landed blade-down just out of reach.

And now Nora and Ren were at her back, and Ruby was without her weapon. Well, that wasn't an excuse not to kick all their butts.

Ruby closed in on Nora and sidestepped a downwards hammer strike. A disorientating blow to the viking's stomach, powered by Ruby's semblance focused through her arm, gave the reaper a second to fold Magnhild up enough to unlock the telescoping handle. Ruby pushed Magnhild's head down the handle, pinching Nora's left hand in the metal. Nora pulled her hand out and shook it and inhaled through grit teeth and didn't notice Ruby had moved on to Ren.

Ren was a lot better at hand-to-hand than Nora( who mostly tried hooks with whichever hand wasn't holding Magnhild). Ren used his feet a lot, and Ruby got kicked in the shins and stomach before she got a grapple on Ren's right arm.

Ren shouted something and distracted Ruby enough for Nora to finish folding Magnhild into launcher mode. Ruby smiled; just as planned.

And Ruby pulled Ren towards Nora and pinballed some blows between them. There was a pause in the fight, and Ren looked at Manghild's barrel, point blank against his stomach, and he managed to say 'uhhhhh'.

In the corner of her eye, Ruby saw that Pyrrha had grabbed Jaune by the waist and had tackled him away from the melee. Oh well, half the team was good enough.

And then Ruby reached down and put her hand on Nora's hand and pulled the trigger on her grenade launcher, and the world exploded.

* * *

Ruby's aura ached, but it was still intact. Pink smoke clogged her vision and Ruby's ears rang horribly, but she could still hear enough to make out a 'Ren nooo!' from Nora.

Ruby quickly limped off to retrieve Crescent in time to trip Nora as she stumbled towards her fallen teammate. Ruby shot the viking in the back twice before she hit the dirt.

Ruby eyed the scoreboard; her own aura was down to only a sliver (Some of the pain was even starting to bleed through), but she was still in the fight, officially. Good; things were just getting started.

By now, Pyrrha had gotten up. She readied Miló towards her, glory-seeking determination on her face. Ruby stared impassively and swung Crescent in her flashiest arc. It didn't indiidate Pyrrha.

They stared and circled each other, slowly.

And then two explosive slugs and a smattering of bullets hit the area around the spartan.

Ruby looked back and blinked and shook her head and smiled, and then jumped over to Yang and Blake were firing. Ruby folded Crescent into gun mode and added her own bolts to the barrage.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"Shields up!" Pyrrha commanded to her comrades. She smiled in spite of herself and she inhaled the scent of used Dust and sweat and machine oil; the odds were against them now, and they had casualties, but that just meant this battle was worth winning. No cause worth fighting for like a lost cause. Used Dust smelled like victory and all that.

Jaune nodded and ducked as much as he could. They locked arms and they scuttled as quickly to they could over to the crater where Ren and Nora fell.

Ms. Belladonnna was to the left, and Ms. Xaio-Long to the right, with Ruby in the center. If Blake and Yang had just recovered, it should only take one hit each to re-shatter their auras, and third recoveries in this combat format were a lot rarer. And there was no way Ruby wasn't on her last legs after a point blank explosion. Erebos, maybe the enemy team would deplete their auras themselves, in time. But they might not last that long; they had to prepare a counteroffensive, but it was getting that last hit that would be the problem.

Miraculously, Ren and Nora still had intact auras. The scanner could assign numbers to their very souls, but measuring whether or not a given blow would shatter anyone's aura was an inexact science. Like Ms. Rose, for example; a lesser huntress might have been knocked out in that horrible kerfuffle, but the reaper had somehow soloed their entire team. Glorious.

Pyrrha set her semblance to its defensive mode. It couldn't actually stop bullets head on (unless she really, really tried), but it could warp their trajectories; not much against direct hits but it could make glancing shots miss entirely, mitigate shrapnel and make suppressing fire less effective. There was a reason she carried a shield, after all.

But this was a lot of gunfire, they were weathering; they were rocks against the tide; eventually they'd be whittled down.

"We need to return fire," Pyrrha said as calmly and steadily as she could. All around her bits of dirt exploded. Glorious.

Jaune nodded. Nora looked behind her. Her and half of Ren's weapon were at the edge of that newly formed crater, a ways away, on the other side of a blast zone. Ren held up his remaining gun and gestured that he didn't need the other.

Pyrrha changed the manifestation of her semblance to pull Nora's weapon towards them. A slug exploded to her left, ringing in her ears, and Jaune grunted as a bolt glanced off him.

After Nora grabbed her weapon Pyrrha immediately shifted her semblance back into defensive mode. Nora looked up from Ren and inspected her weapon. There was some black charring at the end of the barrel. "I'm not going to risk firing this again," Nora said. She sounded a lot more solemn than usual.

"Ok, give me one of the grenades." Pyrrha gestured. "Jaune, you know how to transform my sword, correct?"

"Not with one hand," Jaune said.

"There's two between us." Pyrrha smiled.

As the two of them shifted Miló into rifle mode, Pyrrha prepped a plan of attack. "We've probably only got one shot," Pyrrha conveyed.

Ren nodded from the ground. His aura wasn't actually depleted, so playing possum would only work as long as team RWBY didn't check the scoreboard.

Jaune kept lookout, his free hand gripping Pyrrha's weapon tightly, and on the first break in fire, he gave the signal.

Pyrrha set her aura to a tube of electromagnetic energy and shot one of Nora's grenades right into the middle of team RWBY's formation as Jaune and Ren fired shots at Yang and Blake respectively.

The buzzer sounded at least twice, but Ms Rose continued firing on them. But without her teammates, Ruby couldn't lay down as much suppressing fire, so Pyrrha signaled her team move forward. She paused a moment when she realized Ren's aura had shattered.

"Ice Meteor!" Ruby screamed from the other side of the field.

"Wha-"

Pyrrha looked up just in time to see a pillar of runes around and above them. She lifted her shield and took a bolt to the shoulder and the world simultaneously froze and exploded.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Weiss's aura had regenerated sometime in mid air. She was still traveling up and, she realized, away from the battle, so a repulsion rune at her apex would set her right.

But now she overshot. Whatever. Another rune appeared and she pushed off with her hand, steadying herself. She then fell straight down, back towards the battle as far as she could tell (If she managed to crash some other teams training session? She'd never live that down.) She hugged her knees and twisted until she was facing straight down, her sword extended in the best point she could manage. She began forming a ball of ice around her, generating acceleration runes in a pillar down towards, what she could now discern, was team JNPR pinned down in a giant crater. Dust, what did she miss?

Well, Weiss'd definitely get points with Ruby if she, personally, ended the fight in the most flashy way possible. Later, she wouldn't even care that the impact broke her arm.

Ruby nodded approvingly at the icy mist emanating form the impact point. It was refreshing in the heat. The scoreboard showed that she was the last one standing, with barely a sliver of aura left.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"It's comet, actually," Blake said when she got back up.

"What?" Ruby said, idly.

"Comets are composed of ice crystals, dust, and liquid water. Meteors are rocks, and once they hit the earth they're meteorites."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Is that important _now?"_

"Words can have power. And proper understanding definitions prevent miscommunication."

"OK fine. So technically," Ruby said, "Only the comet's coma and tail are ice particles. And since this projectile formed in atmospheric conditions, neither term is correct."

Blake's eyebrows raised and mouth smirked in impressed surprise.

Ruby folded her arms and closed her eyes and nodded. "I've been studying astronomy."

"Well," Yang said, brushing herself off as she got up from the ground. "How 'bout we compromise; call it 'Ice Comet.'"

Blake and Ruby frowned identical frowns.

"Only you don't because," And Yang smiled mischievously, "You have to call it Weiss Comet."

Blake and Ruby groaned identical groans.

"MEDIC!" called Nora's voice from the fog.

And Ruby's veins chilled. The cloud of fog hadn't dispersed yet, but she glanced at little patches of ice on the ground, and icicles sticking into various parts of the battlefield. Crap, this might have been overdoing it, huh?

And she looked at the eviscerated battleground; the painted lines for zones had been almost completely wiped out by stray bullets. She winced particularly hard when she looked at the crater that had been her point blank friendly-fire grenade blast.

Yang unfroze first, running into the pale blue cloud of ice. Ruby followed her, her mind too afraid to think.

Weiss turned to look at them as they came in; her left arm hung by her side limply and she had her right hand to her mouth, her face wearing the most unsure expression ever. They found Pyrrha unconscious and Jaune kneeling near Nora and Ren with his knuckles in his mouth. Nora was hunched over Ren, who was splayed on the ground with his head back and his arms to either side.

"Oh Ren," sobbed Nora, "Ren Ren Ren please don't die," she hugged Ren's chest, "Please please please don't die."

There was a horrible moment when all anyone could hear was Nora's sobbing. Ruby bit her hand.

Ren coughed. "You're so melodramatic Nora."

"Oh _Ren!"_

Ruby realized she hadn't been breathing. So she breathed a sigh of relief. Her mind admonished her; training deaths were almost unheard of, and team JNPR was skilled enough. They all were never in any danger of overdoing it, right?

"And maybe you should get that checked out," Ren gestured weakly to Nora's left. Nora turned to look at her shoulder.

It had a very large icicle sticking into it. Her side was red and slick.

Nora looked back to Ren and paled. "Oh huh," she said weakly, "That's probably not good."

And Nora fell over on her partner. Ren 'oof'ed painfully.

Then the medics arrived.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"So it's nothing really major," Glynda told the three participants of the fight who did not have to spend the night in the infirmary.

So yeah, it was a little bad- if one's aura was shattered, any amount of magic could kill them- but nobody died today, and she had to admit, it was a rather more impressive practice fight than she'd expected. Of course, back in the day (not too long ago, certainly), when Glynda went through hunter training, they didn't have fancy aura-reading scanners or automatic scoreboards. Everyone could tell when their aura's shattered, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, they wouldn't care or they'd risk actual bodily harm for a chance at a an awesome play. (That same exact problem also occurred in BDSM, sometimes. Well not exactly.)

That's why she was going easy on them. Yes. Not because Ruby looked absolutely devastated. Poor thing; she didn't mean to hurt anyone.

"Accidents happen," Glynda said, "It's obvious you had no malicious intent, so I see no need to punish you."

Glynda cleared her throat. Punishment was a normal course of things for many different occasions, so she should get her mind out of the gutter.

"Furthermore, we don't expect our trainees to never feel pain. Dealing with these sorts of accidents will make you better hunters. It's a lesson we wish you didn't have to learn, but it's one that's better learnt sooner than later."

Blake had what could have been a pokerface, though, and Yang looked upset but occasionally forced a smile. Ruby looked the most upset out of the three, and that's what caused Glynda's gut to seize every time she began a sentence.

"And thirdly," Glynda said, "when you're fighting Grimm in life-or-death situations, you shouldn't be holding back, so we encourage you to go all out. This also serves to prepare our students to defend against all-out attacks."

That was a lot of reasons. People gave lots of reasons when they were trying to obfuscate the real one, she remembered, but this time wasn't like any of those times. Glynda could rationally list all the mistakes made during the match and all the pros and cons of punishing the team, and logic would support forgiveness, she was certain.

"However," Glynda said, "I'll have to assign you to re-paint the field you destroyed. We'll let that serve as any karmic retribution anyone deigns necessary. Or any vague metaphisical arbitrator deigns necessary." She smiled.

Nobody smiled back except Yang. Glynda scrunched her face; maybe she'd been spending too much time around Ozpin lately.

"Additionally, you've all been bumped up in priority for use of the indoor sparring arena. If you're going to be using overpowered finishers, you might as well be doing them on training camera." Glynda smiled. Nobody else did. Dust, was she really _that_ bad at making jokes?

Ruby and Blake and Yang shared looks. Neutral looks, to see if anyone else had any pressing thoughts on it. Maybe they'd have some more in the future. Glynda wouldn't have expected to completely process the news immediately, considering what had just transpired.

There was a moment of awkward silence and Glynda decided the three were not going to say anything more unless prompted.

"You are dismissed," Glynda said. She shot a meaningful glance at Ruby and added, "Unless there's anything else you'd like to discuss?"

Yang almost managed to raise her hand before Blake grabbed it and led the blonde out of the room. They gave their polite nods and farewells.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Door closed; out of earshot. Blake chuckled once. "It's a good thing the teacher's macking on Ruby, huh?" she said. "Got off scot free."

"What? No," Yang furrowed her brow; uncomfortable, "Those were all valid reasons she gave."

"I've found most people only do something for one reason," Blake said.

"Well maybe people are more complicated that you think."

Anger; just a flash. Breath. "My estimation's served me well."

"Has it?"

Blake stopped. Not a conversation she wanted to get into now. "Guess not all the time."

"Well I'm just glad everyone's going to be OK," Yang said. "I just think people should only get hurt consentually, y'know?"

And that started a really weird conversation.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Glynda waited until the door closed to address her favorite pupil. Ruby pre-empted her, however.

"So," Ruby said, poking her fingers together adorably, "What'd- what'd you think?"

Glynda took a breath.

You know a couple days ago? When she thought that, hypothetically of course, a relationship with Ruby would probably be less likely to end in a bloody fistfight to the death? Well, that _specifically_ was still true, but she really meant that, possibly, a relationship with Ruby _wouldn't_ end with the girl's violent death (and that was a positive thing, obviously).

But now it all seemed too possible.

Glynda had to stand up and look out the widow so Ruby wouldn't see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"You were too reckless," Glynda said, "If that were a real fight- you would have- you'd have..." Glynda didn't finish that sentence.

"Well, if it were a real fight," said Ruby, "I'd have won."

"But at what cost?" Glynda pulled off her glasses, covering up that she'd just wiped her eyes.

"Cost?"

"Your- your _life,_ Ruby. Or at least-" Glynda had almost said 'your body'. Talk about bad phrasing. "At the very least your health. You could have been permanently injured."

"You don't think scars are sexy?" Ruby said sheepishly.

Glynda didn't laugh.

Ruby coughted. "Well, I guess I wanted to look cool," Ruby said to her hands.

Wait-

And Glynda had a thought that was particularly horrifying; Ruby knew her teacher was watching that fight. Was this just a way to impress her? Was this all something Ruby thought might endear Glynda to her?

Or was Ruby really the kind of person who'd die for someone she loved?

Let's rephrase that; was Ruby the kind of person who thought that reckless disregard for her life, in the name of someone else, was- romantic? That she didn't think of herself as worth more alive than dead?

Well, regardless of her reasons, Ruby seemed to have a death wish, and Glynda, as a teacher and a mentor and a friend, needed to disabuse her of that notion.

"And I guess I figure that life owes me a little for-" Ruby bit her tongue, "for reasons. And it won't let me die until I've been repaid."

Glynda was too preoccupied to think too hard on it.

"Ruby," Glynda began. Her voice cracked, "I-"

Glynda walked over and took a seat across from her student.

"Don't take this the wrong way- I still- I can't give you what you ask of me-" Glynda took a breath, "But I care about you. Really. And-" Glynda's voice cracked again, "I don't want to see you gone. Or even hurt."

Ruby's eyes were wide and her mouth was agape in surprise.

"So promise me you'll be careful, OK?" Glynda said, reaching out her hand. "Don't- don't throw away your life."

Ruby put her hand on Glynda's. "I will," she said.

* * *

So; 'being owed something by Life'? 'Fate'? Well, there was one person she knew who knew (or at least liked to think he knew) a lot about the subject. Sitting around worrying about possible futures- it was all irrational. Nothing to be done about it. But all the same, she couldn't stop.

So the next time Glynda had the opportunity, she asked Ozpin what he thought of Ruby's fate, the next time they were scheduled for tea and chess and philosophical meanderings. She'd bring up her student, as teachers often did, and then maybe death, as old mortal people often did. And maybe Ozpin's particular brand of irrational fatalism could negate Glynda's particular irrational preoccupation.

"A warrior cloaked in the color of death?" Ozpin said. "Who lives for battle, without a thought for her own life? Picking up a dead mother's mantle to fight a war for humanity? Sounds romantic."

Glynda choked on her tea. She was doing that a lot around Ozpin. "W-what?"

"Classically romantic," Ozpin said. "The idea of individual growth, triumph and glory? I say she fits the idea."

Of course that's what he meant.

"But," Glynda said, "I meant- ummm." What did she mean again?

Ozpin took another long draught of his tea and examined the board. "And do consider her family history. Qrow still works for us, as does Taiyang. And refresh your memory on Summer."

Glynda nodded. She'd been trying to remember that decade past as well.

"And she has silver eyes. They have stories about that, you know."

Glynda resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ozpin liked to treat myths as prophesies and prophesies as plans. He also liked to forget that they had been a part of the team that helped create half of them.

"All circumstances considered," Ozpin said, "I do think Fate wants her to fight. Whether or not she dies, well- We have an academy designed to teach her the skills to prevent that. It'd certainly wreck our business model if we couldn't live up to those promises."

Glynda nodded again. Well, that was a big circular logic loop that only told her what she already knew.

She still had to be Ruby's mentor, except to a greater extent.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"I have to apologize, guys," Jaune said as he tried to get the last bits of jello out of his cup. The upside to being in the infirmary was free hospital food. The downside involved depressingly bare walls, sterile sheets, and the vague smell of something he couldn't quite describe. Like, if emptiness had a smell, it would smell like an infirmary.

"What for?" Ren asked. His damage was mostly surface scratches, even though his torso was covered in bandages. It looked bad, but nothing had hit him deep. Jaune told him to milk it for all the sympathy he could.

"I should have called it off at the end there," Jaune said. "Once Ruby single-handedly massacred us. Know when to fold them and all."

Pyrrha looked conflicted. Jaune didn't catch what happened to her in the fight, but she seemed physically well. No bandages to speak of. She paused before she spoke every time she did after the fight, but it'd only been like, what, three hours? Probably just stress. Hopefully just stress. "There's nothing wrong with trying to snatch victory from defeat," she said.

"Yeah but," Jaune said, "Ima just say that maybe Yang's not the only one i her family with berserker tendencies."

"She offered to tune all our weapons for us," Ren said, "Ruby's alright in my book."

"I'm not saying she's a bad person," Jaune said, "Just- not someone I'd like to piss off. Like, ever."

Ren and Pyrrha nodded. Nora did too, slowly. She looked a lot healthier after her blood transfusion, but she seemed a little shell shocked, and hadn't kept her eyes off Ren the whole time. Her left arm was in a cast and her shoulder needed a couple days under the medigel, but she was due to make a full recovery. She was actually not supposed to be out of bed, but eh.

"I know you can borrow weapons from the school armory," Jaune said in Nora's direction.

"I'm good," Nora said distantly. "We can do cardio training while we wait."

Jaune tried to catch Pyrrha's eye. Honestly, he still didn't know quite how he had made team leader above her, but Pyrrha had exactly zero complaints about the arrangement, and was always willing to help him out. She was basically the shadow leader.

But now she looked a little disappointed. She shot Jaune a smile when she saw him looking at her, but didn't offer any explicit advice.

"Are you ok, Nora?" Jaune asked. Ren and Pyrrha looked at him awkwardly. "I mean, if you want to talk about feelings? That's like a team bonding exercise."

Nora paused for a moment. "I'm good, thanks,"

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Nora refreshed her smile. "Besides, now we get to sleepover together! That's also a team bonding exercise."

"Yes, as long as we're together," Ren said.

"In a way, I feel bad for Weiss," Nora said, "She's all alone here. I guess her team doesn't love her enough to visit."

"I can hear you, you know," came a voice from the cell over.

"Do you want to join our party?" Nora called over the wall, her natural exuberance partially restored. "We've got jello cups!"

"No thank you," intoned Weiss's voice.


	5. Chess

Three nights a week- sometimes more, but always at least Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday- (Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays was Aura Manifestation, so this way she saw Glynda every weekday)- Ruby would make her way to the third floor teacher's offices and stand in front of one of the more ornate doors and panic just a little as the remnants of her doubts tried one last attempt to dissuade her. But then Ruby'd take a breath and she'd remember that- on the other side of this door- there was someone who believed in her- someone who loved spending time with her, who always banished all of Ruby's doubts and made her feel- well, special.

And today, an hour and thirty minutes after she'd walked in and smiled sheepishly at Glynda and her teacher moved some papers Ruby stared at the last section of her book. She'd already read it and reread it. Well, on the second read, she'd stolen more than a couple glances at her teacher across from her. But enough of that.

But tonight, another bad thing had happened. Ruby took a breath. Well, this had to happen sooner or later.

"I think I'm done?" Ruby said, hefting her Aura Manifestation textbook. "With all the material in this course, I mean."

Glynda smiled. "That means you're three weeks ahead," she said. Glynda sounded proud of her. _Proud._ Of _her._ Ruby beamed inwardly.

But she had to cut her celebration short. Save it for later. Ruby raised her eyebrow. "There's only a month left till finals? This semester went by pretty quickly."

Glynda put down her pen. "You have no idea." She pushed a stack of papers to her side. "Well, as luck would have it, I don't have any work either," she said.

Ruby scrunched her mouth. Of course she wanted that to not be a lie, but she also didn't want to be the reason Glynda was behind in her work. "Are you sure?" she asked, eyeing the stack of papers.

Glynda pushed the stack further away. "Yes."

Ruby coughed. "So, uh," she said, "What do you do for fun?"

Glynda immediately turned red. She coughed into her hands and adjusted her glasses. The whole episode was really adorable, Ruby decided, and she tried to hide her giggle.

"I mean," Ruby said, "Like, books or games or puzzles?"

"Oh!" Glynda adjusted the collar of her shirt. "Yes. Of course. Games."

Glynda turned halfway behind her, flicking her wrist at the bookshelf on the far wall. A beautifully carved wooden box floated towards them.

Ruby cleared her book and notepad off the desk as Glynda pulled out and arranged the most beautifully crafted chess set Ruby'd every seen. It looked like some sort of Dust crystals in black and white wire.

"Do you know how to play?" Glynda shot Ruby a smirk.

"Y-yes." lied Ruby.

Glynda started setting up the board. The pieces were pretty, but Ruby couldn't for the life of her remember what they were called.

"So what got you into chess?" Ruby asked a little weakly.

It was an amazing story, one that Ruby was glad she'd heard. And, Ruby noted in relief, one that managed to eat up all the remaining time they had that evening.

* * *

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled as she kicked down the door to her dorm.

"Ruby." Weiss deadpanned, without looking up. She was doing homework. Blake was also in the room, on her bed, in shadows. Reading a book, looked like. (Wasn't that bad for your eyes?)

Ruby walked up to Weiss. "You're super smart and you said you know all the courtship rituals ever, right?"

Weiss smiled at the praise. Too easy. "In Atlas, but that might as well be the world, right?"

Blake chortled something.

"So do you know chess?" Ruby said. "How do I flirt when I play chess? And, uh, how do I play chess?"

Weiss looked a little surprised. "Well of course I know chess. But I'm not sure what you mean by 'flirt' when you play chess."

And Ruby realized Blake was standing behind her. She slipped I an 'oh hi' gesture before she spoke next. "It's easy. Chess is about being smart. So talk about smart things."

Weiss shot an incredulous glare at Blake. "You play chess?"

Blake's face became anger. "What are you trying to say? You think I'm too dumb to play chess?"

Weiss folded her arms. "I jsut didn't quite think it was your style."

Blake's pupils shrunk. "I could kick your skinny entitled butt at chess any day of the week," Blake said.

"Hrmph!" Weiss said, "Unlikely."

Blake pounced on her bag and pulled out a small wooden box. She pulled her desk into the center of the room and started setting up a small wooden chess board.

"Well that's a sorry looking set if I ever did see one," snooted Weiss.

Blake grit her teeth. "It's hand-carved. By someone I cared for. I don't expect you to understand why that would be special to me."

Weiss looked apologetic for a moment. Then she walked over to one of her suitcases and pulled out her own set. The pieces were glass and had little glowing blue specks of dust embedded in them in elaborate patterns. Ruby would later learn they were Schnee related.

Blake just glared at them though, and Weiss put on her best obnoxious grin. "Well I guess I can't compete with sentimental value. These just have regular value."

Weiss then delicately touched Blake's chess board and reached for her side of the pieces. Blake pulled her set out from under Weiss's hand.

"On second thought," Blake said, gathering up her pieces, "I don't want you touching them."

"Fine." Weiss shrugged, pulling her board out.

"FINE."

Weiss angrily slammed pieces down on her board as Blake crossed her arms and emitted angry sounds.

"Um," Ruby said, stepping in between her teammates, "I'm also gonna need a reminder on the rules."

"Well," Weiss said setting up her half of the board. "Chess is a careful game of strategy."

"It's a game about awareness and redirection." Blake said.

"-Where you think ahead and implement your strategy as best you can-"

"-Where you're constantly forced to adapt to a chaotic landscape and unpredictable opponent-"

"Oh," Weiss threw her hands up, "And I bet you also think Pai Sho is a fast-paced edge-of-your-seat game of chance?"

Blake glared. "Isn't it?"

"Well," Weiss leaned back in her chair, "Since you're clearly the lesser player, I'll take a handicap." Weiss plucked one of the taller pieces from the board.

Blake intercepted Weiss's hand, causing the heiress to drop her piece. Blake snatched it from the air and placed it back on the board. "You insult me. I don't need any sort of handicap."

"I'll at least take black, then." Weiss spun the board around, so that her side had the smokier glass pieces.

Blake immediately pushed one of her front line pieces to the center of the board.

"So," Ruby said, again leaning between the two girls. The air almost felt colder. "How do I flirt with it?"

"If you win," Weiss said to one of the pieces, a taller one she hand her finger on, "It shows you're smarter than your opponent, and thus desirable as a mate."

Blake flashed a frown. "You can also share in a fun experience you both enjoy."

Weiss stared at her board again.

"You're taking forever!" Blake yelled. "There are only sixteen moves!"

"Twenty," Weiss smirked, "You're forgetting the knights." Weiss moved one of her horsey pieces. She looked at Blake and raised an eyebrow. "You sure you know how to play?"

Blake immediately moved another of her front-line pieces to the center of the board. "At least I don't take literally forever to make a move."

"That's how you play!"

Blake pulled out her scroll and tapped on it. After a long pause, she looked up. "Downloading a speed chess app. I had hoped it'd load faster so I wouldn't lose my gravitas."

She placed her scroll next to the board. It had two digital clocks on it; the one facing Blake was set to 5:00, and Weiss's 15:00. She grinned viciously at her opponent. "So are you brave enough to try it the fast way?"

Weiss had hesitated, but after Blake spoke she tapped the 'start' button on Blake's scroll. Her timer started ticking down. Weiss made a move, and she tapped her half of the time. Blake took a move and slammed her hand on her half of the timer. It was a lot less interesting than Ruby thought it'd be.

"So what's so interesting about chess?" Ruby interjected. "You never really answered my question."

"I guess it's also face time," Blake said. She moved more of the front line pieces. "You get to talk about smart people stuff," she eyed Weiss. "Only if you're actually smart, though."

"Yeah," Weiss said, ignoring Blank's pointed stare. She gazed at the board in panic for a moment and then moved a piece and hit her timer. "Blake and I actually had a pretty good intellectual conversation earlier today. One we didn't finish, actually," Weiss said pointedly.

"I'm pretty sure we did finish it. I won. History is on my side," Blake said with an air of smugness. She'd moved her piece so fast Ruby thought she moved on Weiss's turn.

That put Weiss off her game, maybe? She moved her piece sloppily. Wait, did that matter?

"That doesn't matter!" Weiss yelled as she made her move, "She should have lived, regardless of what 'history' said."

"Her death was symbolic," Blake shot through her move. She had spread her pieces all over the board by this point. "As was her father's; death claims kings and beggars alike, with the same acclaim."

"But did _she_ have to die? They play could work just as well if she didn't." Weiss took a while to move, but Blake tapped the timer and smirked, which prompted Weiss to move one of her taller pieces. Blake then moved one of her pieces onto the same tile, placing Weiss's piece off the board.

"Oh, poor widdle rich girl doesn't think bad things should happen to princesses?" Blake tried to look Weiss in the eye. Weiss, however, was panicking at the board.

"I think at least one thing good should have happened to her, for all she did."

"She got what she wanted in the end; Lear forgave her." Blake paused for a moment when she looked at her board. She rubbed her chin and moved a piece on the side.

"Right before he also died! What was the whole point of the whole ordeal, if he was just going to die?"

"It's Lear's fall from grace."

"So why was Cordelia punished for her father's sins?" The two of them collected several of each other's pieces in a quick trade off.

"Because that was part of his punishment. Everything Lear held dear was taken away from him, so that he would learn his lessons; that even kings are subject to nature," Blake grinned at the chessboard, moving the castle-piece onto a tall piece. "And some other, less important stuff."

Weiss opened her mouth and frowned at the same time. Ruby was impressed. She and Blake traded five or so moves before Weiss remembered what she was going to say. "Like which of his daughters really loved him?"

"Like I said," Blake sped through her move, "Other, less unimportant stuff." Blake smirked at the piece she moved.

"I think it's _very_ important for Cordelia that her father know which of his daughter's _really_ loved him."

"But the story wasn't about her. It was about Lear."

"Why is it always about Lear? Can't it be about Cordelia, for once?

Blake blinked and stared, surprised, at Weiss for a moment. Weiss realized after a moment that she was standing up. "I- I mean," She backpedaled, opting to stare at the chess board and move a piece. "I think she's as valid a protagonist in the story as the title character."

Blake moved her piece and looked at Weiss. "Perhaps her love was misplaced-"

"It was _NOT_ misplaced! Lear was a good king and a wonderful father."

"We don't know that," Blake looked a little sympathetic. "And you mean until the start of the play, right? Because the first thing he did was be a bad king and a terrible father."

"I-" Weiss began. She then looked down at the board. "I concede."

Blake frowned in panic. "What? You can't do that."

"Sure I can."

"But I haven't won yet."

"But you're going to," Weiss said, "So I'll concede. Congratulations, Blake!" Weiss- actually had what looked like a genuine smile.

"But-" Blake said, "I haven't taken your king yet."

Weiss plucked up the piece with a flourish and tossed it to Blake. "Here you go."

"But I haven't won yet."

Weiss shrugged and started packing up the pieces. "Well maybe next time, Blake."

Blake stood up, over the desk, and slapped her pieces to the side. She stared right into Weiss's face.

"You. Asshole." Blake seethed, and then she left the room.

Weiss took a breath and slumped in her chair.

"I- guess that went well?" Ruby said, "If possible though, I'd prefer not to recreate that when I do this with Glynda."

* * *

And later that week, when Ruby stood in front of the door that held the person who believed in her, a part of Ruby was worried that Glynda'd be disappointed that Ruby didn't know how to play her favorite teacher's favorite game. And Ruby didn't read nearly enough Shakespeare to carry on a conversation about it for two hours.

Glynda smiled as gently as ever. She pushed a stack of papers to the side- Ruby giggled, wondering if Glynda thought she was being subtle- or maybe Glynda was deliberately being cute. How risque! But Ruby couldn't fault her teacher- Ruby'd been doing the exact same thing, all the sheepish smiles and cute stares and innuendos.

And that managed to assuage Ruby's chess-related fears long enough for her to take a seat in front of Glynda and look down on the board, already set up in front of her.

"I have a confession to make," Ruby said, trying to curl up in the wrappings of her hood.

"Oh?" Glynda said.

"I'm-" Ruby inhaled- "I'm not actually very good at chess! I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Glynda said, "I sort of figured."

Ruby blushed. "Was it that obvious?"

Glynda laughed and rubbed Ruby's hair. "I thought maybe I could teach you." Glynda shot Ruby a sultry smile.

"O-oh!" Ruby pushed her hands down on her chair. "I'd like that," she said sheepishly.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Later during their chess sessions, Glynda took the opportunity to ask about Ruby's personal life. Not in a creepy way or anything. They just had a lot of face time now, now that they weren't doing school-related activities. Ruby like to talk about her teammates; Ms. Schnee, it turned out, was surprisingly normal, and it also appeared Ruby liked to read books; she regularly did so with Ms. Belladonna. It was good to know that Ruby had other friends.

And Glynda learned a lot more about one Ms. Yang Xiao-Long than she would have felt comfortable with. It seemed Ms. Xiao Long had a laundry list of personality flaws that Ruby couldn't help but point out.

"If you need to talk about anything," Glynda said, "There are- there are councilors." She said, after one of Ruby's longer tirades. Glynda figured she was too close to one side of the party to offer impartial advice.

At some point parenthood was brought up.

"I- I don't think I'd ever be a parent." Ruby said.

"Ever be apparently what?" Glynda said.

"Apparent-" Ruby's face fell. "Ha. Ha." she deadpanned.

Glynda chuckled.

"What I meant was-" Ruby eyed the board. "It just seems so irresponsible. You're taking responsibility for someone else's happiness and-" Ruby moved a piece.

"And what?" Glynda allowed herself to say.

"And its just too easy to break it, you know?"

Glynda paused. That was something she was worried about too.

* * *

.

.

.

* * *

Glynda stared at the stack of papers she hadn't graded yesterday. It wasn't really a big deal; she had time now. Forget that she'd spent two hours yesterday playing (no, not in _that_ way) with her favorite student. Forget that she'd blown off her job for what was basically personal indulgence. And forget that Ruby was probably trying to seduce her through the whole thing. Nope. Just- as long as Glynda ignored the unethical implications, her office-hours turned chess lessons with Ruby were nice. Once again she was playing the teacher, and she loved it.

And now there was a knock on her door. Ruby had class this time, so it'd be an actual student this time.

But Glynda's heart didn't get the memo. She'd associated visitors almost exclusive with Ruby (was she that unpopular as an off hours mentor? No, that just meant she was teaching the material perfectly in her actual class hours).

A familiar mob of unkempt yellow hair stepped into her office.

"Hey teach!" said Yang Xiao-Long. She looked around Glynda's office at the various certificates and mementos lying around her office. For some irrational reason, it annoyed Glynda.

Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Ms. Xiao-Long. How may I help you?"

As any good teacher was obligated to do, Glynda did not allow any ... rumors, lets call them, to affect her judgement of her students. Nor did she allow herself to treat any student harshly due to preconcieved notions. And if her favorite student had nothing but negative things to say about a fellow student- forget that they were sisters- well, Glynda'd never allow that to affect her treatment of said fellow student.

"Hey, so," the student in question said, "Nice office you have here."

"Please don't waste my time, Ms. Xiao Long." Glynda said. Ruby had mentioned that her sister was a little unfocused.

"Uh," Ms. Xiao-Long turned to her. "My sister still's got a little kiddy crush on ya," she said. Trying to sound nonchalant.

Glynda's stomach tightened. That's right; Ms. Xaio-Long knew about Glynda and Ruby. And she didn't approve. If there was anyone who'd blow the whistle on her, who had an interest in getting her _fired_ maybe, it'd be this one. And it didn't matter that Glynda hadn't made any move into any actual infraction- Yang's word would be enough to at least get a few questions asked, maybe start an investigation, and someone- someone important- might discover Glynda's obsession with a student, and that was just too much of a powderkeg.

"I think you need to do something about it." Yang offered oh-so helpfully.

Glynda grit her teeth. Of course she knew she had to do something about it. Of course she knew it was unethical to court a student. And, she was acutely aware, of course she knew she had to do something about having gotten caught. "Something... like what?" she said as sternly as she could.

But that was just biding time. Glynda knew what Yang meant. Yang was right, right? Even if Glynda didn't want to admit it? The sooner she did this- the sooner she cut Ruby off- the sooner Ruby could start find someone else, someone she could actually be with. It was a kindness to break her heart, right? It'd have been a greater one weeks ago.

And, just as a bonus, it'd ensure that no nosy blonde would report Glynda's little infraction-waiting-to-happen to the headmaster.

"Just," Yang said, "Tell her no. In no uncertain terms. " Yang spread her arms out in indecision. "Tell her- that you can't see her anymore. That you need to spend some time apart, and she should try making new friends."

Glynda quieted her heart. This was right. This was what was supposed to happen. This was what was always fated to happen. She was running towards the inevitable, not tempting grief by forestalling it.

So why was it so hard to actually do so? Why, later that night, was it so hard to actually speak the words? Why did it break her heart so much to tell Ruby, the next time her student awkwardly walked in for a nice game of chess- that they had to talk, about themselves, about _us-_ and that Ruby couldn't do this, couldn't come to her office hours anymore- she'd finished the material, so she had no reason to, and learning chess wasn't a sufficiently good alternative reason to-

And afterwards, to tell Ruby that they had been playing pretend long enough, that it was time to stop this pretense, that they had to stop seeing each other. Why did it twist Glynda's throat and stomach and heart- oh her heart, she'd forgotten what it was like to describe her heart as broken-

And then Ruby fell to her knees- there were tears- and sobs-

-the absolutely devastated look on Ruby's face-

"Oh, _Ruby,"_ Glynda said, standing up and running around her desk.

She kneeled down and pulled Ruby into the tightest embrace. Ruby was warm in her arms, Glynda noticed. And then she noticed that Ruby felt small, and a little cold too in some places, and very vulnerable. Well, Glynda guessed she had herself to thank for that last one.

"Oh Ruby Ruby Ruby-" Glynda whispered as she rubbed the smaller girl's head. "I didn't mean a word of it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Glynda held the broken girl- the girl she broke- as Ruby sobbed exactly once and seemed to calm down.

"I'm so, so sorry," Glynda said. She squeezed tighter, as if she was hoping to shelter Ruby from something (herself, ironically), and in a moment of insanity, Glynda smooched Ruby's forehead.

Glynda thought time might stop again as she realized what she did, but then Ruby returned the hug- a full body hug, pressing her face into the crook of Glynda's neck and inhaling a long, unsteady breath across Glynda's shoulder. Time didn't stop but Glynda blocked off all other distractions as she ran her hand down Ruby's back and tried to comfort the remaining sniffles- the remaining pain- out of the young huntress.

After a while, Ruby managed to speak, "W-why would you say that?" she croaked. There was a feeling of betrayal in her voice, and that stung as hard as anything. Glynda was glad that Ruby's face was still on her shoulder, because she didn't know if she could handle seeing Ruby's expression, and because Glynda didn't know if she could put on a brave enough face for Ruby.

"I thought it'd be better if you moved on," Glynda whispered, "What are you doing here with me?"

"I don't want anyone else," Ruby whispered. "I'm not going to move on." Ruby pushed herself back just enough to look Glynda face to face.

And Glynda took it all in- the entirety of the pain and hurt and the longing- that was both relieving and disconcerting- Ruby still loved her, even after Glynda had betrayed that love, and Glynda became acutely aware of her sudden responsibility for Ruby's happiness-

"I-" Glynda began. She couldn't look away. "I don't know what I can be for you."

"You can be enough." Ruby smiled forlornly.

"I can't- I won't initiate anything. And you can't either."

"That's ok." Ruby said again.

A few strands of Ruby's hair had come unshelved during her sobs, and Glynda idly brushed them, little by little, out of her face, as Ruby stared into her eyes, as she stared back into Ruby's eyes.

"This is nice," Ruby whispered. She rested her forehead on Glynda's shoulder again.

"Yeah," Glynda responded. Ruby's hair was soft.

"Why wouldn't you want this?" Ruby asked.

Glynda bit her lip. "Well, Yang thought-"

Ruby's eyes unfocused. "Yang," she mouthed.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"YAAAAAAAAAAANNNNG!" Ruby screamed as she kicked down the door to her dorm, Crescent unfolded and ready in two shaking arms.

And Yang looked up in utter shock.

"YANG YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE."

Yang stood up and put her hands out in front of her. "Is this about-

"YOU FUCKING KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT."

Yang's brow furrowed. "You know I wanted to keep you from getting hurt-"

"And you thought you'd get the the only person to ever understand me to tell me she never wanted to see me again? YOU WANTED HER TO ABANDON ME?"

Yang frowned. "Ruby, _I'm_ here to understand you-"

"But you don't! You don't, and you don't want to, and you don't even try to-"

"Ruby you're being irrational; of course I want to-"

"Then why don't you try to?" Ruby wiped her face on her sleeve. "Why can't you listen!"

"Y-you ungrateful jerk! You don't think I listen? After everything I do for you-"

"All you ever do is hurt me!

And Yang paused a moment and had the _nerve_ to look apologetic. "Ruby I-"

"You made her hurt me! You made her say those things-" Ruby sniffled. "You don't know. You don't even know."

Yang stood up and held her arms out. Fat chance she was going to get a hug. "Ruby I didn't mean for that to happen-"

"Then you can't do ANYTHING RIGHT you adopted sack of trash-"

"I"m not adopted!" Ooh, that made Yang angry. That wiped that stupid sorry look off her face.

"You have blond hair-"

"Dad has blond hair-"

"And you're super tall-"

"Raven was really tall-"

"And you have purple eyes-"

"I- that doesn't mean anything-"

"And Raven hated kids! Do you think she'd actually gestate one for nine months?!"

"I-" Yang's voice cracked, "People do strange things sometimes-"

"It's pretty clear you were adopted!"

"I'm not adopted!"

"Adopted! Adopted! Adopted!"

"Shut up!"

"Adop-"

"SHUT UP!"

And Yang grabbed Ember Cecilia from her desk and jumped.

Ruby parried the first blows, sending errant blasts into the floor and walls. Ruby stepped past her opponent to hook her under Crescent's blade, using the resulting leverage to defenestrate her in the most satisfying crash of glass and architecture.

Ruby leaped out through the new hole in the wall and, amid powered mortar and glinting shards, fired Crescent twice. She missed both times.

Yang landed in a half-squat and fired Ember at the ground as she jumped, intercepting Ruby in midair in a brief melee. They landed still fighting; it was a mess, with low blows, gut punches, hair pulling-

And name calling. Ruby won on that front- Yang was only emitting a gross chortling whine by the end.

And Ruby was about to win too- just one more jawbreaking blow and Yang'd be out cold, Yang wouldn't even absorb it, Yang was too sad to go into her berserker mode- big mistake-

And a glowing shifting, prism of runes appeared between them.

Weiss ended her spin and elegantly shifted into a defensive stance between the two of them. Myrtenaster's blade parallel to her spine, glancing between the two sisters.

"What are you doing!" Weiss yelled.

"{sniff} Stay out of this, princess!" Yang yelled back. Her voice was hoarse and cracking.

"I will not!" Weiss yelled.

"This isn't any of your business!" Ruby screamed.

"We're teammates! We help each other!" Weiss yelled back. She breathed in. "C''mon," Weiss softened her voice, tried to sound conciliatory, "Let's- lets all just talk about this."

"Right after I kick Yang's butt!"

"Right after I kick _your_ butt you ungrateful little twerp! You never appreciate anything I do for you!"

"I never wanted anything you did for me!" Ruby yelled as she lunged.

Weiss blocked both blows as best she could, but neither of her teammates had any thought for their own defense so Weiss had to cover both of them-

And eventually it had to happen, when she misjudged a feint and was about to get caught between a scythe and a fist-

And a shadow enveloped the whole world, and the next thing Weiss knew she was in the middle of an ashen explosion, Ruby propped up on her scythe and Yang just a little slower at picking herself back up.

And Weiss realized her fourth teammate was behind her.

"Stun Yang," Blake intoned, and she vanished in a writhing shadow.

Weiss didn't spare words, barely even nodding. She spun Myrtenaster's cylinder to set her sword to stun.

Yang's eyes were red and puffy and her combat grunts were choked with half-sputtered sobs and it wasn't too hard to find an opening to shoot a pulse of spell into her stomach. It didn't completely stun her, but it gave Weiss enough time to circle to the side and charge another blast along Myrtenaster's blade.

Weiss hesitated before the last spellstrike. "I'm sorry," Wiess said quietly. Yang shot her a look that could have been anger or resignation before it went, unequivocally, to unconsciousness.

Weiss sheathed her rapier as quick as she could to catch Yang's body. "Oof," she said.

Weiss turned back to the other side of the fight and saw that Blake had already won. She held Ruby under her arm and Ruby's massively overcompensated weapon under her other arm.

"I didn't know you were proficient in spellcraft," Weiss said.

"I'm not," Blake intoned. She seemed to catch Weiss's intent though. "Sleeper hold."

Weiss scowled. "Isn't that dangerous? Should we take her to the nurse?

"I know what I'm doing," Blake intoned again, but her voiced was tinged with a hint of defensiveness.

Weiss pouted. "Well if you say so."

They walked towards the building. Weiss's footsteps sounded too loud for their midnight operation, but somehow Blake didn't make a sound.

"Thanks," Weiss said eventually.

Blake stopped, her back turned to the heiress. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for what you believed in."

"Well, thanks for believing in me."

Blake turned around, her eyebrows raised and her mouth eyes wide and her mouth snarled. "That's not- I wasn't – I-"

Weiss smirked. "Dust, Blake. What do you have against opening up?"

Blake opened her mouth. Then she closed it and turned away. Weiss couldn't be sure in the night but she looked like she was blushing?

"Good job." Blake said. "Teamwork. Yes. It was a good exercise."

Weiss smirked. "Was that all this was to you? Ruby and Yang's bond is greater than anything and you're just excited to do tandem combat with me?"

"I-" Blake began. "Anything? You believe that?"

"You stick by family," Weiss said. "Or you're supposed to, anyway," She said more quietly. Shoot, was that divulging too much?

Blake didn't respond to that for a good five seconds. "How admirable. I guess there's some good in you yet, Schnee."

"You ass." Weiss said. After a moment, she smiled.

They dragged their teammates to their dorm. Nobody stopped them, though every door they opened seemed to creak too loudly than Weiss would have preferred, considering the hour.

"Great," Blake said after she placed Ruby on her bed, "Maintenance won't be able to fix this until morning." She gestured to the massive hole in the wall. "I'll have to grab another blanket so I don't freeze tonight."

"The cold never bothered me," Weiss bragged.

"Because you're heart's ice cold, yeah," Blake said.

"I- _Blake!"_ Weiss said.

"My bad," Blake intoned, with just the hint of a smirk, "Ruby and Yang are unconscious. I'll have to use that again when I have an audience."

Weiss harumphed. "Well I was going to offer you my bed for the night, since it's on the side with the heater. It'd be warmer."

Blake was stunned for a moment. "I"m not going to take your bed, Weiss."

"Nonsense. If you're cold and I'm not, then letting you have my bed is the logical solution."

Blake smirked, jokingly, accusingly, "Then you want to sleep in _my_ bed?"

And Weiss took a breath and blushed. This was it, she thought. They were alone, they'd just had a teamwork moment.

So Weiss took her chance, and spoke her heart.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ruby was adrift in an ocean of ache and discontent, drowning in jumbled pain and confusion and anger. So, so much anger.

And then Ruby's eyes shot open. Darkness. There was -something on her chest? Something around her neck oh Dust-

A blanket. Oh. That was fine then. Especially since her face was really cold. Ruby tried to sink into the blanket more, like a turtle.

She was in her dorm, in her bed. Someone had pulled her boots and cloak off but otherwise hadn't undressed her. She was relieved at that.

Once Ruby's eyes adjusted she looked around. Most of their dorm was as she remembered it, except for that huge hole in the wall where their window used to be. Oops.

Weiss's bed seemed unoccupied. Blake was nowhere to be seen. But Yang was where she usually slept-

Yang.

Ruby rolled off her bed and landed as quietly as she could. There was still a soft whump, so she held her breath and tried to listen for a change in Yang's breathing patterns. There wasn't one.

So Ruby crept up until she stood over her sister. Then she paused.

What was she trying to do? Strangle her in her sleep? That idea made much less sense now than it had a minute ago.

She didn't want anything bad to happen to Yang. Well, okay, maybe she really wanted to see her stupid fucking sister without that stupid fucking fake smile of hers. Ruby meant, _she_ knew it was a fake smile, but everyone else seemed to buy it. Why was Yang faking for them?

Well, actually, it probably wasn't actually any of her business, how Yang chose to express herself to others. So Yang really should just mind her own business too. Maybe it'd be enough revenge to just break ties with her.

Yang's eyes opened.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I'm sor-"

"I don't want to hear it Yang," Ruby whispered as harshly as she could. Her fists clenched. "You said you'd support me. You said you believed in me."

"I-"

"You did my hair for the dance! Was that just to lure me into a false sense of security?"

Yang looked away. She didn't respond.

Ruby's eyes were hot and her throat was wet. "What reason do I have to trust you Yang? How am I supposed to believe anything you say now, after you stabbed me in the back?"

And Ruby got her wish. Yang turned to her sister and her face was as fallen as Ruby'd ever seen it. The blonde's nose twitched and she blinked hot tears out of her eyes. "Ruby, you know I love you-"

"That's not good enough Yang! So what if you think you love me? You still end up hurting me."

Yang brought her fist to her mouth. She didn't say anything.

"So what guarantee do I have that you're not just plotting my downfall? How can I trust you anymore?"

Yang swallowed. "I guess you can't."

"So I have no choice but to reject your 'love', you-." Ruby began. She was too tired to bring herself to insult her sis- her _former_ sister.

"Rubaby-"

"Don't call me that!" Ruby said. "It's just Ruby from now on. Or maybe just 'Team Leader'."

"I-" Yang choked. She was full on crying now, her face marred by sadness. "Please, Ruby-"

Ruby stood up. "Goodnight, teammate," she said to the wall.

And Ruby went to bed.


	6. Aftermath

"Glynda," Ruby moaned as she tangled herself in her bedsheets, "Please hold me..."

Ruby let a blurry eye open long enough to locate her pillow. She squeezed the tears out of her eyes as she pulled her pillow to her chest and hugged it as tight as she could and she exhaled shakily through the cloth and she shuddered. It was a poor substitute for her teacher, but it helped her remember earlier that day, it helped her lose herself in the memory of Glynda's strong, warm, kind, motherly embrace; in her scent; peppermint and chalk and peaches now, just a little, and the papers she'd graded and the ink she'd spilled on her hands. It helped her calm down. It helped her forget where she was. It helped her forget what she'd just said to her sis- her teammate.

(And it also helped her forget that, as their dorm now had a hole where their window used to be, it was super fucking cold.)

"Do- do you know any lullabies?" Ruby whispered into her pillow. "My mommy knew this one about a rabbit..."

Her grip relaxed as her breathing did and Ruby drifted back to sleep. She didn't know if it was the middle of the night, or the ten minutes before her alarm went off.

* * *

Ruby woke up- for reals this time. After pushing her pillow facsimile aside and fumbling with her scroll she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up and took a quick survey of the room. Yang wasn't here- actually, that side of the room was completely empty. The sheets looked untouched and the desks were bare and there were no pairs of shoes at the foot of the bunk.

A part of her felt liberated. A part of her felt scared- that this feeling would end, maybe, or because of other reasons. A lot of her felt confused.

Ruby untangled herself from her bedstuffs and stood up and stretched and yawned and saw that Weiss was on her bed, partially under covers, hugging her pillow.

(Weiss had decided that if their 'horrible makeshift hackjob of a bunkbed' was going to fall, that she wasn't going to be the one squished in the collapse, and had ended up taking the top bunk.)

Weiss was on her bed hugging her pillow in the same lonely, tearful way that Ruby hugged hers when she was angry and sad and hopeless and powerless. Which was definitely not how she had just been hugging her pillow the previous night, mind-

"Ah," began Ruby. She should have sounded more comforting, she thought. "What's wrong?"

There was the muffled sound of churning cloth, or something churning within cloth, and Weiss's voice, soft and creaking and empty, said "Blake really hates me."

Ruby laughed a laugh that should have sounded less condescending, she thought, and she tried to tell herself it was to lighten the mood. "Well, yeah."

"No I mean she really hates me."

"I mean," Ruby bit her lip. "Did you think she didn't?"

Weiss maneuvered her head out from under her covers. "I thought it was all just good fun, all just teasing and flirting, maybe," she said into her pillow.

"Ummm," Ruby said, "Okkkaaaay. Is this related to why you're sad?"

Weiss looked up. A frown marred her face, and her makeup was smudged a bit (did she forget to take it off when she went to bed?). "As a matter of fact it is." She pulled her head back under her covers.

"Doooo you want to talk about about it?"

Weiss blinked at her twice. "Thank you, but I don't want to talk about it. I think I'd like to wallow," Weiss said. Her voice was steady. She pressed her face back into her pillow. "Goodbye."

Ruby took a breath.

Weiss was upset- hugging your pillow upset, which was, like, in the top three of the worst kinds of upset.

Ruby knew that feeling. It was a demon she herself had wrestled with too often.

And all the times Ruby had cried out for help but only gotten smiles, all the times she'd asked for help but had only gotten falsely confident reassurances in her own ability to figure things out- all of that bred a determination that she wouldn't be so fucking useless whenever someone she cared about was crying out for help.

"Is this an 'I need some space', an 'I don't want to talk about it', or an 'I desperately need a hug but I don't want to ask for one' kind of 'I'd like to wallow' kind of 'I don' want to talk about it'," Ruby asked.

There was silence from the sheet cocoon.

Ruby waited. She was willing to wait as long as it took.

"Am I a bad person, Ruby?" Weiss said, eventually.

"Ummm," Ruby said.

"That's a yes." Weiss shuffled deeper under her covers.

"No!" Ruby said, "No, I meant, well, everyone has things they want to work on, right? Like, I'm a little lazy and a little emotional, and I should eat less cookies, and I know some of that gets on your nerves, for example, but ah-. Yeah. I'm just saying you have a few minor flaws," Ruby hunched down and pinched her thumb and forefinger for the last bit. She didn't' want to upset her teammate even more, but she didn't want to lie.

Weiss sniffled again. "Ok, yeah." She turned to her team leader. "What do you think I need to work on, to be a good person?"

Uhhhhh. Ruby twitched her hands and turned her head and grimaced at the wall. "I mean, you shouldn't obsess about changing yourself, right? Accepting your friends despite their faults is a part of being friends."

"Well, how am I supposed to fix myself if nobody will tell me what I'm doing wrong?" Weiss said. "I promise I won't get mad."

"Uhh," Wow. This was sudden. Ruby scrunched her face a few times.

"I'm giving you full permission to criticize me." Weiss said. "You must have some scathing remarks saved up. So let's hear them."

"Well," Ruby said, "You seem a little self centered. And you say mean things sometimes, without caring about they affect other people? And you flaunt your money a bit."

Weiss didn't react.

"And, uh, the racism thing I guess?"

Weiss continued to not react.

"Am I helping or..."

"No no, you are," Weiss said. She sat up on her bed and showed her face to Ruby for the first time. "Thanks," Weiss shot Ruby a smile. Like, a genuine smile. Maybe it was because her hair was down or because her makeup was smudged (Did she not take it off before she went to bed last night?), but Weiss looked completely honest for maybe the first time since Ruby'd known her.

"Ok, cool," Ruby held her arms out for a hug. That was what everyone secretly wanted in these situations she knew- a reassuring embrace and the warm comfort that you weren't really alone.

Weiss maneuvered so her torso hung off the bed. Ruby had to stretch onto the tips of her toes to complete the hug.

"I'll try to be a better person," Weiss said. "And I think you should be too."

Ruby maintained the hug. There was only a little doubt in her mind.

"What do you mean?" Ruby said, suddenly a little cautious.

"I mean with Yang-"

Ruby pulled her arms back. "Oh my Dust Weiss!" she yelled, hurt creeping into her voice. "I thought you were genuinely upset!" Ruby's insides felt scraped and an embarrassed anger rose from her chest through her neck.

Weiss's face was shock. "Wha-"

"This was all a ruse to- to try to get me to be friends again with Yang?"

"N-no-"

"I can't believe you! You and every other manipulative sack of shit trying to control who I like!"

Weiss opened her mouth hopelessly. "That's not what I meant-"

"Well you can just forget it!" Ruby folded her arms and started walking out of the room. "No wonder Blake hates you!"

Maybe she shouldn't have said that last part. This was the 'being a little emotional' part again, Ruby thought. She'd apologize later. But now she was too hurt and angry and betrayed because et tu, Weiss? Trying to decide who she could be friends with? As if you had any right to! Fuck you.

Ruby grabbed her bag and walked out the door.

After she left, she didn't hear Weiss mumble to her pillow.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Yang wobbled up the halls in spurts, slow and trembling. She had to double check where she stepped and she swayed when she walked. Her nose still twitched in sobs, but she'd stopped the rest of the symptoms like the wet eyes and inability to breath and heart palpitations. Mostly. Most of the time.

It was going to pass. It was all going to pass. It'd all turn out okay.

Ruby would love her again like she used to. Ruby would need her again, like when they were kids, when Ruby would look up to her big sis and smile and they'd promise to looked out for each other forever, when nobody else would. Ruby would remember those promises- Yang'd make sure of it.

Yang'd have her Rubaby back.

Yang was in the middle of the hallway back to her teams room, walking a little more slowly to try to gain as much composure before she had to face her sister-

Ruby stepped out of their dorm.

They stared at each other. Yang blinked first.

Ruby turned away, her arms folded and her head tucked into her shoulders.

"Wait-" Yang cried and reached out.

"I don't want to talk to you," Ruby stated. She didn't stop walking. Yang pursued.

"I made you cookies," Yang bumped the plate she held just enough to cause a crumbly clink, so that Ruby would notice it.

"I don't care."

"Ruby, please, I'm sorry! I'm sorry about everything, just- just talk to me-"

"We already resolved this!"

"No we didn't! You just walked away!"

"Because I can't deal with you!" Ruby said, "Because you can't listen to me! So that's how this ends; we just- just walk away from each other."

"But I'm trying to listen now- "

"Well I don't feel like talking!

"What about me, Ruby?" Yang sobbed, "What about what I feel? Don't my feelings count for anything-"

"Why does this always have to be about you? You're always trying to make me do what you want, what you think is best!" Ruby said, turning around and jabbing a finger at Yang. "You're so fucking selfish, Yang!"

" _I'm_ selfish? Because I want to protect you-"

"YES!" Ruby said, her arms outstretched and tense, her facial exasperation accusing, "You don't care about me! You don't respect my choices, Yang! You don't care about who I am!"

"I-" Yang said, "I'm just trying to do what's best for you-"

"You don't know anything about me, Yang!"

"Ruby!" Yang yelled. How could she say that? "I practically raised you-"

"You don't want the real me, Yang! You just want some helpless baby to coddle!"

Yang opened her mouth and closed it.

"Well that's not who I am Yang!" Ruby yelled, " don't need protecting! I don't want protecting! I don't want you trying to apologize to me!" Ruby took a shuddering breath. "I just want you out of my life."

Yang just couldn't accept that. How could she?

"Please," Yang said, her voice as shaky as her hands, "Just have a cookie-"

Ruby slapped the plate from Yang's hands. Pastries flew through the air, cracking against the walls and floor.

Yang glared. "Ruby! I worked hard on those-"

"SO FUCKING WHAT? I never asked for them! I never asked for you! You can't just force shit I don't want onto me and expect me to be grateful for it!"

"I'm trying to make it up to you-"

"You can't, Yang! There's nothing you can do!"

"Please, Ruby," Yang's eye's fogged up with tears, "Don't you realize how much I'm dying inside-"

"I KNEW IT!" Ruby screamed, "I knew your stupid smiles were fake! You faker! You LIAR!"

"I-"

"LIAR! Stop trying to be my sister, Yang! I don't want you!" Ruby stepped into Yang's personal space until Yang was backed up against the wall.

Ruby's face was red and she shuddered when she spoke. "Just get the fuck out of my life, Yang! And NEVER come back!" Ruby screamed, jabbing her finger at Yang's chest over and over and over.

"NEVER EVER!" Ruby yeleld, "NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER-"

Yang's ears rang and her eyes watered and her body shuddered and she couldn't breath and her thoughts stopped.

At some point Ruby stopped yelling at her.

At some point Ruby left.

Yang slumped against the wall, falling down to the floor, hitting it with a soft whump.

She picked up the cookies.

She picked up the plate.

And she walked back to their dorm room, and she placed the tray on her desk and she jumped on her bed and cried.

It didn't look like this would turn out okay.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Weiss fumed silently into her pillow.

Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid.

Well, technically, fuming wasn't something Schnees did. Instead, she wallowed. Seethed into the ground. No, not seethed. Crystallized. Yes. Crystallized into seething crystal anger- at herself, at her inability to read people, at her left forearm, and also a little at everyone else (Blake, mostly, but enough of that fiasco)- where it would remain in the aquamarine ice geode that was now her heart.

Stupid stupid stupid.

So maybe she shouldn't have tried to help Ruby out with her sister. Whatever. She wanted to be mad at her leader; if she was going to offer her support, what kind of person would withdraw it mid-way? But Weiss could tell she overstepped her bounds, at least now. Even though Ruby was totally out of line here. Whatever.

Stupid.

Still, to be accused of being manipulative- _her_ of all people- didn't Ruby know how much her honesty meant to her?

But yes; appearing sad- even if you actually were sad- and then using that when someone opened up to you- to try to leverage someone's kindness to provoke a change in them certainly was a way you could manipulate someone.

Weiss breathed. Well, she'd long ago resolved not to be that kind of person. So she'd take this misstep as what it was- a misstep, a simple misstep- and after just a few more minutes of wallowing she'd be perfectly fine.

And she was fine- definitely, just about to get out of bed and check on her stocks and make a phone call about her business acquisition and then go to class, when Yang shoved open the door, tossed a plate on her desk with a clatter and jumped (impressively, part of Weiss thought) onto the other top bunk, blubbering in the most undignified manner.

And she flipped the covers over her body and lay flat on her face and sobbed into the pillow.

And really sobbed; if Weiss didn't know what the sound really was, she'd have thought it was a pack of Beowolves in the adjacent forest. Or some sort of emergency siren wrapped in Styrofoam and silk.

But no, it was human noises; Yang took long breaths every so often between, long, long, long, loud cries into her pillow.

"Um, Yang?" Weiss said. Her voice really should have been a bit more comforting, she thought. Dust; did she really always sound like she was whining? Surely Blake was just exaggerating-

No time to think on that. Yang's sobbings did not relent, and Yang made no indication that she heard the heiress.

"Yang!" Weiss yelled. Maybe she wasn't loud enough. "YANG!"

Yang paused crying. Weiss tried to figure out what she should say next-

And then Yang resumed crying.

Weiss harumphed and shot a look at the wall. Whatever. Not everyone had as impeccable control over their emotions as she did, and once Yang was done feeling sorry for herself, Weiss would try again.

Right? That's what a good teammate would do; wait for the time when you had the best chance of success? She'd just learned that lesson with Ruby like, thirty seconds ago. This was her second chance.

So Weiss waited. For Yang to calm down- solely for Yang; she was definitely not still upset about how half her team was mad at her.

And some time later (they were both likely to miss first period- whatever) Yang's sobs subsided a little. Not entirely, and it was still very unseemly, but it was enough to maybe talk over.

Weiss let herself down from her bunk. She walked over to her teammate. "I will be making a quick phone call. I'll try again when I get back and you've calmed down a bit. "

And Weiss came back with a clear head. Business was business, and years of suppressing her emotions during business deals and company check-ins made her associate the dispassionate detachment that she needed right now with doing business. It helped her sort things out, sometimes, and it made her an excellent businesswoman. Yep.

So when she come back a little richer and found that Yang was still sobbing- rising and falling in volume and pitch with the same long muffled wolfhowls, she was level-headed enough to not yell or prod or awkwardly backstep out of the room or anything. Well, not in a way that Yang would see. Yang was in need, and there wasn't anyone else around, so might as well be her, right? She was so generous.

Weiss walked up to the side of the bunk (And maybe she was just a little short, shut up Blake), leaned on the tips of her toes to be face to face with Yang, and held up a plastic water bottle.

"Hey, so," Weiss said, "I'll bet your throat is sore." She shook the bottle.

Yang sniffled and rubbed her nose on her forearm. Some unattractive strings of snot trailed from it. But she was calmed down enough to take Weiss's water bottle and chug it in one long, multi-gulp motion. Weiss hesitantly took its gross remains and flicked it into the trash.

Weiss looked out of every corner of her eye. "So, um." She began. "Do. You. Uh. Want to talk about it or something-"

And Yang started sobbing again. Weiss flinched back, and flinched again when Yang leaned off the edge of her bunk to pulled Weiss into the least safe bear-hug ever. Weiss eyed the rocking of the bedframe, acutely aware that if the bed fell off its support books her torso would be crushed.

"Woah watch the sleeves!" Weiss tried to maneuver so Yang's nose was on her neck; skin was easier to clean than silk even though – no, she was _not_ going to think about how gross all that mucus and slobber would feel-

"I'm not adopted," Yang said through her sobs and shudders,"And so what if I were? I wouldn't love Ruby any less." Yang sobbed a couple times; luckily the bed stayed stable and her nose seemed to be relatively empty. "I'm her real sister," Yang said, over and over, a sanity mantra barely above a whisper, "I'm her real sister."

Weiss shot a horrified expression to the wall; she was not at all qualified for anything even remotely close to this. She'd hardly been hugged growing up; everyone always cried into handkerchiefs and hers was in her desk right now, and the dress she was wearing was not machine washable and who would she get to clean it oh Dust-

Weiss slowly raised her arms and haltingly patted Yang on the back two or three or five times. Yang seemed to appreciated it.

"I just want to be a good sister," Yang said. She snifled.

Weiss continued patting up to Yang's head in stiff, even cadences. "I- I know. And that's very admirable. I wish more people were like you."

"I do so much for her! We used to be so close. I-" Yang said, "I – I remember when we were young, and we only had each other, and- and-"

Weiss looked off to the side, bringing her head a little bit out of the hug, "Well, uh, Ruby says she spent most of her childhood depressed-"

"She's always been like that," Yang sniffed, and Weiss braced for a wet sensation on her shoulder. "Always focusing on the negatives. But she had me and dad and Zwei and uncle Qrow- she smiled a lot, and she laughed. And whenever she was sad, I'd cheer her up."

"Ah- awesome. It sounds like you were an excellent sister," Weiss reassured.

Yang flashed an ephemeral smile. "But I tried that today and-"

Yang shuddered and hugged Weiss tighter and let out a long, gross sob.

Yang choked again, "And I can't remember if she's even fucking smiled at me this semester, and-"

Weiss could, specifically when Ruby was around a specific teacher, but Yang probably didn't want to know about that.

Yang sniffled, "I love her so much. Why doesn't she love me back?" Yang said.

Weiss bit her lip. "Well..."

Yang pulled back and looked betrayed.

"Don't take this the wrong way," Weiss said, "But, uh..."

And Yang just looked despondent. Was now really the time for hard truths?

"I think Ruby just needs some space, is all." Weiss said.

Yang sniffed and nodded.

Weiss tentatively held her arms out, and leaned forward. This was how this worked, right? You just, sort of lean into each other? That's what Ruby did like fifteen minutes ago.

They Hugged. Yang hugged a lot harder than Ruby did. It wasn't a bad sensation, Weiss supposed. Whatever.

Yang pulled out of the hug. Weiss reaffirmed her posture.

"Do you like cookies?" Yang ventured, after she wiped her eyes. "I made these for Ruby but..."

"Cookies are unhealthy," Weiss stated.

"C'mon," Yang began. She leaned over the side of her bed to grab a broken cookie-

And oh Dust it was like the embodiment of temptation- there were soft raspberrys and a chunk of white chocolate clove in half to present their tantalizing deliciousness-

Weiss shot Yang the dirtiest expression. "Nooooo,"

Yang smiled just a bit. It looked weird with her eyes still wet from tears. "Not even just one?"

"Fine!" Weiss pouted. "Just _one_ cookie." She pinched the cookie between her thumb and pointer finger and closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out and shuddered as she chewed- wow, Yang was really good at making cookies

Yang laughed once- a pleasant sound considering what she'd just been like, three minutes ago. Weiss congratulated herself.

Yang insisted on a few more. Weiss refused, until Yang joked that she'd feed Weiss if need be.

Weiss allowed herself three more cookies, which she managed to eat perfectly fine all by herself.

At some point Yang got out of her bed and started preparing for the school day. Weiss counted it a success.

And right before she left, Weiss set up her chessboard on her desk, with the black side facing Blake's bed, and moved a pawn to D4.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Glynda inhaled and exhaled. She had just straightened out her office-not that it was ever cluttered (her living space was much less disorganized than her thoughts and her emotions had been recently). It was the quiet time of day, with rays of a low summer sun peaking through the windows.

She had just set out a chessboard and had fixed her hair and glasses and shirt. She'd finished grading papers now (actually finished, so she had no reason to feel guilty about playing games with a student), and she really should have something better to do than eagerly await a visitor-

But instead she used this time to compose herself- her appearance and her thoughts and her workspace. Glynda breathed; she was composed. For once, aha.

Yesterday was- it was nice. Yes. No sense denying that to herself, aha. Even though it was dreadfully inappropriate-

Hugging a student like that. Hugging itself wasn't bad, but they way they did so last night-

It was a long time since she'd hugged someone like that- since she'd cradled someone she cared for in her arms-

Maybe she'd allow that to be the new boundary. They couldn't be a couple but maybe they could share a warm embrace every so often. Not too often- it'd be suspicious, and it might give Ruby the wrong impression of what Glynda wanted from their relationship and what Glynda was willing to do.

And- and Glynda was never, never, ever going to admit this to anyone, but it had ...excited her, lets say heart, to be that intimate with someone again. Like when she'd first realized Ruby had a crush on her, and suddenly everything her student said sounded like a sexual innuendo. Their relationship had then moved to something different, something more of a close mentorship and what did Ruby say that one time? Abstractly intimate? Yes- simple encouragement and silent- not awkward silence, but understanding silence, the 'nothing needs to be said' kind of silence silence (or maybe, I'm afraid to ruin nudge the delicate balance of our relationship silence), but it was enjoyable silence none the less.

And they talked a lot- about their lives and feelings and hopes and their dreams for the future and their memories about the past. It was more emotionally intimate than Glynda had been with anyone in recent times- not even Ozpin, not recently, though since she and the old wizard had lived through most of the most emotional parts of their lives together, it was more that they didn't really need to talk about things like that.

(Actually, Glynda figured she should probably ask Ozpin how he was holding up- if he had any resurfaced feelings or emotions he needed to bring up- or if he just wanted to reminisce, it'd been a little while since they'd really, really gone hard back into the memories.)

The one thing Glynda still had to parse for herself was that she herself had initiated that last kiss- on the forehead, though, a motherly smooch of reassurance- but still, it was a smooch.

It was probably fine. As long as she never did it again. It wasn't the inappropriate kind of kiss- (Well, maybe a little inappropriate)- just, again, a motherly smooch. Not the strangest thing, yes.

Was she fine with that? Glynda'd never really given any thoughts to having her own children- being a teacher was, like, doing a small part of raising a child a gazillion times, and even though she excelled at training teenagers, she didn't really feel the desire to raise one from the beginning.

Ozpin and Ozma had talked about adopting, before- well, you know. All that tragedy happened.

The door creaked open.

Glynda remembered that she was supposed to be composed. So she closed her eyes and breathed in and then smiled her warmest smile at her visitor.

Ruby was hunched over a little and she was looking down and her eyes were a little red and she was shaking slightly. Ruby looked up and forced a smile.

"What's wrong?" Glynda said.

And Ruby's nose twitched and she blinked a couple times and her shoulders shuddered and she choked back a sob-

And Glynda was there in an instant, pulling her pupil into her arms again. Ruby started crying then, just one choke that didn't quite die in her throat and a little dampness on Glynda's shirt.

Glynda held her student again, a little tighter. She didn't say anything, didn't demand an explanation or a reason, instead offering a silence where nothing needed to be said. The hug was unconditional, she hoped it didn't need to be said.

"I told Yang I didn't want her to be my sister anymore," Ruby confessed, eventually, in a pained whisper.

Glynda didn't know what else to do but hug Ruby harder.

It seemed to be enough; Ruby tensed and then relaxed.

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Glynda said.

"I-" Ruby said, "I wish I didn't. But she makes me so angry-"

Ruby pulled back her face was in shambles "I- I had to, you have to believe me-"

"I know what it's like to have to turn away someone close to you," Glynda said. "Of course I believe you. You don't owe me or anybody any explanation."

Ruby's wet eyes widened in surprise for a second, then relief flooded over her face. She smiled and shuddered and was about to start crying again.

Glynda pulled the girl into her arms again, her chin resting on Ruby's shoulder.

"I know what it's like to have all your love and affection slowly give way to fear and anger and helplessness," Glynda whispered. She stroked Ruby's head in long, slow motions, "And I'm sorry that it happened. I'm so sorry."

"I- okay," Ruby ran her hands up Glynda's back, lightly.

"But if you have to turn her away," Glynda said, "Then you had to. You don't have to explain yourself. You needing to preserve your happiness is reason enough."

"I'm worried that it's my fault," Ruby said.

"You never need to feel guilty about cutting out of your life the people who make you feel that way," Glynda said. She realized some of her own bitter past threatened to creep into her voice, but she cleared her throat of such notions. "But I'm detecting that you wonder if she is, for you? You are sisters. Do you think you can reconcile?"

Ruby shook her head from side to side. "N-no. I mean, at least right now. I just get so angry at her. I don't like that."

"Then you have your answer," Glynda said.

"Is- is it really that simple? Wh- what if I made the wrong choice?"

"It's never too late to reconcile," Glynda lied. She refreshed her smile. "If you feel differently later, then, well. You can start working it out then. Right now, you made the decision that was right for you."

Ruby rubbed one last sleevefull of tears off her face. "Okay." She refreshed her smile. "So uh," Ruby said, "Since this morning I was kind of wondering if you could tell me a story?"

 _..._

* * *

 _... And then the battle was over; th e last spawn of fear and pain had dissolved into dust. A mage panted a few breaths in victory. She stood up, and brushed the strands of her hair that had come undone. She cleaned her glasses and brushed off her garments_

 _Another mage, a little taller, more angular, approached._

 _The blonde mage smirked. "Forty three" she announced._

 _"That last wave had a dozen Beowulfs in it, actually..."_

 _"no-"_

 _"Fifty one, so ha!_

 _"Dustdammit." answered Glynda._

 _Then they laughed._

 _"But wait," said Glynda, "How many did everyone else get?"_

 _"Nine," said Ruggedo. His specialty was in crowd control; his support had lined up much of the mage's kills._

 _"This matches the hundred or so Grimmspawn the villagers estimated."_

 _"Which leaves negative two for our fearless leader," Mombi noted._

 _"I definitely saw him fending off at least a dozen of the monsters at the windmill."_

 _"I as well," Ruggedo said._

 _Oscar, the leader in question, approached with a flourish. He bowed before his team and crossed his legs and spun his cane in his hands. "Oh," he grinned, "I never told you my special ability?_

 _Glynda frowned. "I suppose you did not."_

 _Oscar flashed a toothy grin. He jumped upon a nearby rock, spinning to face the battlefield as he did so. He stood on one foot and spread his arms out towards._

 _"It's called," Oscar said, "Acting."_

 _Mombi asked if he meant that his semblance made it easier to take on personas that weren't his own. He did not._

 _Then the three actual hunters kicked his butt._

* * *

...

"Hehehe," Ruby giggled softly, shuffling under Glynda's arm, "You said 'butt'."

Glynda puffed out her cheek just a bit and leaned back- not enough for Ruby to fall out of her lap, but enough that she had to straighten her arm a bit. The afternoon had fallen into dusk as they talked, and the two of them had somehow drifted into a cuddle.

"I'm not too old to say 'butt'," Glynda protested.

"I- well," Ruby said. She rested her head on her teacher's shoulder. "I figured you'd use some old-timey term like 'tushie' or 'buttocks' or maybe just the innoculous 'bottom'."

"Well, just for you," Glynda said, puffing her cheek out slightly, "From now on I shall use, exclusively and exhaustively, the term 'Badonkadonk'."

"Noooooo~"Ruby snorted. It was a few seconds before she could take a gasp and speak. "Anything but that."

Glynda giggled in response. "So do I have your permission to use the term 'butt' now?"

Ruby's face became an iota more serious. "You don't need my permission for anything, Glynda."

Glynda's face flashed over in an instant blush. Oh wow, Glynda, get your mind out of the gutter-

Glynda shook her head and poured platonic gentleness back into her smile.

"Your blessing then?" Glynda said.

Ruby laughed again. "Ok. I will bless your use of the word 'butt'."

They snickered even more. Glynda tried to tell herself that it wasn't that funny.

Ruby then asked about more serious things. "But he really didn't fight back then? Ozpin seems a lot different now."

"Well sure, now he has a different name and classed into Mysterious Old Wizard now, but he was originally Oscar Zoroaster the Charlatan."

Glynda pontificated at the wall. "He was the local hero of half a dozen villages, because he was really good at convincing people to fight for themselves. 'the power was in you all along' kind of thing. And he was also really good at claiming credit for it..." Glynda continued.

Ruby sat enraptured for the follow-up story, until Glynda's office hours were up and Ruby had to leave, with a handshake- tight and heavy, with a meaningful squeeze before it concluded- and an almost-teary 'thank you' for the comfort and advice and the story and the smiles they induced. Glynda was maybe perhaps less than perfectly elegant as Ruby left. They hadn't even played any chess.


	7. Recovery

So Canon divergence; I'm interpreting Faunus as having multiple animal aspects, in this fic.

Also, as an author's note: No character is supposed to come off as entirely unsympathetic or as entirely right. I mean, that's how they're supposed to come across; your interpretations may vary.

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

After dorm was empty; Blake crept in (force of habit), gathered her stuff, shivered in morning air; window still broke.

Schnee had set up chessboard. Moved a piece. Clearly inviting Blake to move also.

Blake did so; simple pawn move. Why did she do that? Had doubts half way to cafeteria. Too late to go back and move back; Schnee might notice piece moved back anyway.

.

Went to morning class; sat alone.

.

Afterwards, went to lunch. Didn't see teammates along the way.

Food was nice; today had favorite fishies; the small, dried, salted kind, that you could eat like chips.

(Blake shook one of the fishies between her thumb and pointer. _**"Hey Blake, what's going on here?"**_

"Due to recent natural disasters, I'm going to have to relocate all of you."

Blake tossed the fishy and several of its friends into her mouth. Salty, crunchy; delicious.

"Into my stomach." Blake finished, mouth full, "Omnomnom.")

Also took some peas; probably should try being healthy. Blech.

.

Walked to tables with sense of purpose. No teammates in sight: good: not bad; not worried about long-term viability of Ruby, Yang, Schnee and herself. Nope. Never.

Not worried about being alone forever.

Blake made tons of friends. Friendly Friends. Not just books (books often better than friends, though). See, here is one now. Approached friend.

"Hey Velvet," Blake said. Smiled, with all of face.

Velvet turned; smiled warmly. She was tall; rabbit ears on head. Her cheeks were flushed slightly, eyes droopy and slightly red. Possibly recovering from cold?

Velvet had tray of lettuce (blech). Exclusively lettuce (extra blech). Suppressed instinct to look disgusted. "H-" Velvet coughed, "Hey pfeffaroo. How's it going?" Velvet said; joyous, inviting, Lapine accent.

Blake turned away; avoided looking awkward. "Mind if I sit with you today?"

Velvet gave uneasy smile, but still friendly. "Sure." Velvet titled head. "Did something happen with your team?"

Sigh; internal. "Yeah..."

Velvet beckoned to empty table. Followed; sat down, began chewing on fishies.

Another student; Velvet's team leader (Coco or something? Smelled like fancy shampoo, ) walked up, sat down, titled head forward above sunglasses, smirked. "You want to sit with _us,_ freshman?

Velvet waved air, nodded sagely. "Naw, Coco, she's cool. She's in my history class with Port."

Coco stared at Blake. "Haven't I seen you sleeping behind the third floor vending machine?"

Face flushed. _"No~"_ Hopefully convincing. Probably not.

Coco stared down Velvet; after two seconds, she pushed sunglasses up bridge of nose, shrugged, turned back to CFVY's fourth member, Fox; Faunus, blind, had one arm around Coco's arm.

"If you say so," said Coco.

Oh, Velvet's boyfriend was here too; large but silent. Blake felt kinship.

"Coco, Homba, Yatsuroo, this is Blake Belladonna." Velvet said.

Yatsuhashi stared. Blake stared back.

Blake then stared at Fox. Remembered he was blind. Looked away; embarrassed, but still watched Fox in corner of eye.

Fox twitched nose.

Blushed. Then tried not to blush. Blake was sure both Faunus on CFVY knew her secret by smell.

"She's part of team RWBY," Velvet introduced. "You remember? I think Professor Goodwitch mentioned them a couple times in our spellcasting class. There's that one freshman who we keep bumping into at the weapon's forge, and the one girl who did that kegstand at one of Nora's parties, and one of the daughters of the SDC."

"Schnee," Fox spat; latent anger in voice; yesssssssss.

"Oh?" Coco said.

Big guy: Yatsuhashi; stared at Blake; skeptical, inquisitive, disapproving maybe. Velvet noticed; said, "Thanks for standing up for me last week, Blake."

Shrugged. "I guess I'm just big on race relations and junk."

Yatsuhashi looked surprised and approving. Blake nodded to him. He nodded back.

Fox began, "Well why wouldn't she b-ack!" Velvet stopped on Fox's foot. Fox cleared throat; "Back her fellow sentient beings, is what I was going to say?"

Blake returned to the normal time stream, chuckled awkwardly.

"So just out of curiosity," Coco said, "What brings a little freshy to our table?"

Stared at food; fishies stared back; bit one on the head. "My team's a dust-forsaken _drama hurricane_."

"See, this is the problem with freshmen." Coco said; turned to her. "All drama all the time. So lame."

"I seem to recall we went through that stage," Yatsuhashi said. "I felt it would never end."

"Ahahaha," Velvet said; flailed her arms, "She doesn't need to know that. It all worked out."

"Because you two ended up together," Coco said.

"Publicly," Fox added.

"You two could try the relationship thing too, if you're really that bitter about it," Velvet said: mouth full of lettuce.

Coco turned to Fox. Fox titled head. "If we get bored, maybe," Coco said.

"Do you want to vent about it?" Velvet asked Blake. "I know it can be tough, keeping it all inside." Coco rolled eyes. Big Guy was impassive.

"Well," Blake began. Of course wanted to vent about it. Could scream inside. Did, actually; didn't help. So; vented.

"Ruby and Yang have some massive sisterly conflict going on. From like the past ten years of so. And Yang seems to resent me for trying to hear Ruby's side of it. And Weiss is just a terrible person so nobody likes her."

Chewed food more. Taste of fishies; soothing. "And she propositioned me yesterday."

All four; turned immediately. "Woah what?" they all said, or some variation of.

" _Weiss Schnee_ propositioned you?"

"You mean the Heiress of the SDC?"

"Pretty sure there's only one heiress of the Schnee Dust Circus." Blake said.

Velvet, Fox laughed at that.

"Except a circus would employ Faunus, amirite?"

Blake stopped laughing. "You really can't say that-"

"No," Velvet pointed fork, _"You_ can't say that. _I_ can fight terrible business practices by joking about them to promote awareness. "

Blake blinked. Stifled latent anger. Bad; she was trying to be friends. Friends make mistakes, sometimes. "Just because you're Faunus doesn't mean you're incapable of saying offensive things, and 'joking' doesn't absolve you of causing offense."

Velvet frowned. "Look, I know you're being mindful of the racial implications but-"

"Eeaghugheah-" Coco waved hands between them, turned to Blake. (Velvet frowned, crossed arms, leaned back, pouted) "So. You came here to brag about rejecting her?" Coco said. "That's a little petty, freshman."

"What, _no~"_ Blake said.

"You needed validation in crushing a social rival, then?" said Coco.

Face; hot. Stupid. "I- shut up."

Fox turned to her. "You came here for a hi-five for shutting down a Schnee?" He held hand out.

Blake hi-fived. Velvet also held out hand; double hi-fives.

Smiled inside. Also, smiled outside.

Big Guy frowned. "That's really not something to celebrate."

"Yatsuroo," Velvet said; looked annoyed, "You know how bad the SDC is."

"But insulting the heiress isn't the solution to the problem." Big Guy closed eyes. "'You are punished by your anger'."

"Oh? What _is_ the solution then?" Velvet pointed fork.

"I'm not sure, but it's probably not tearing down the Schnee heiress."

"And you're going to do that _now?"_

Yatsu closed eyes. "'Every moment of conflict is an opportunity to improve yourself and the world'."

"Is it too much to ask for my _embleer boyfriend_ to support my politics?"

"I am- I'm trying to show you a better way than taking out your petty rage on someone who was just raised that way." "

"Oh, 'petty rage'?" Velvet glares," You think it's _unfounded_ that I would dislike the family that singlehandedly dismantled Atlus's labor protections?"

"I do, actually."

"Then I guess my feelings aren't as important as your embleer religious fidelity!"

Yatsu looked pained. "Velvet, that is very unfair of you-"

"See? You're doing it again-"

"I'm not going to give up aspects of my life just because we're dating-"

"Then fine!" Velvet slams table. "Keep your religion! Have fun trying to make out with _that."_

Yatsu breathes. "Very well."

Velvet crossed arms. Both chewed, aggressively, in silence.

Blake blinked. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you break up-"

"They'll make up and make out within the hour, don't you fret," Coco said.

Coco raised some eyebrows, titled her head forward so that her sunglasses slid down her nose. "Speaking from experience, I see why your team's a drama hurricane then." She pontificated, leaned forward.

"Drama's just unresolved interpersonal conflict. So tell me; if your teammates are upset with each other, do you think walking away going 'entire team is drama!'", Coco flailed hands in air, "is going to make it better?"

Gulped. Maybe embarrassed, a little. "But I 'm good at running away."

Coco flashed look of sympathy. "So did that ever make it better?"

Furrowed brow. "Yes. You don't know what I've run away from, or how hard it was to do so.

Coco scrunched her mouth to the side; shrugged. "Maybe. But is your team so bad that you need to run away from them?"

Sunk into shoulders, at last remaining fishies; soothing, but not enough. . "... no."

* * *

(And, in passing period between 6th and 7th period, Blake walked in on Velvet and Yatsu, making out. Blake was relieved, and only peeped for a little while.)

* * *

-[]-

* * *

The evening after the apocalypse (basically the apocalypse, she mused), after all the opening up emotionally and putting out emotional fires and then avoiding everyone in the halls and cafeteria, and the sending apology texts and waiting those excruciating minutes for unsatisfying three letter messages for text replies, and Weiss strutted back to her teams dorm room, completely and utterly exhausted. At least she had the room to herself.

Weiss was, of course, aware that she had added to that just a bit. Yesterday.

 _"So you want to sleep in my bed, then?" Blake had said._

 _Weiss's heart skipped a beat. "That's one way to put it. I'm saying I know a lot of ways to keep you warm tonight."_

 _Aaaah she finally said it oh Dust oh Dust-_

 _Blake's mouth dropped and her eye twitched. "Is this a joke?_

 _"Wha- no, you idiot. I'm saying I-" Weiss had glanced down at her hands. Argh, she wasn't normally that timid or unsure of herself. She knew what she wanted, what she had to do, so she should just do it. "I really like you, Blake. And- and, I was hoping we could be, you know." Weiss looked up with her eyes, and her smile shuddered just a little. "More than friends."_

 _And Weiss's expectations and giddiness vanished when Blake just stared at her in disbelief. That hurt most of all._

 _"You WHAT. You_ like _me?"_

 _"I – that's what I said-"_

 _"I can't believe you! You fucking- you whinging, disgusting, diminutive- Argh-"_

 _Blake stepped forward. "I **loathe** everything about you, Weiss," Blake had spat, stepping forward with each indictment.. "Your perpetual whiny voice, the way you flaunt your wealth, your politics, your- your- UGH! There's so much and I can't think of it right now-"_

 _Weiss was aware they were close enough to kiss. Her lips twitched a little, yeah, but she knew well enough not to actually go for a kiss-_

 _Blake misinterpreted the gesture, however._

 _"Ahh!" Blake jumped back, wiping her mouth even though Weiss didn't actually do anything, "Get away from me you creep!"_

 _Weiss was too stunned to protest that, actually, Blake had been the one to close the distance between them-_

 _But Blake had left the room, and at that juncture Weiss retired to her bed to mope for the duration of the night._

Weiss sighed and stepped her dorm room.

Ruby had texted her that she packed her cloak and a pillow with her books and retired to a couch in the library, where she intended to fall asleep studying, so that Yang could have the room if she wanted.

Yang had joked that depressed girls were total babe magnets, so she was going to take advantage of that fact tonight in town so that Ruby could have the room if she wanted. Weiss was relieved when Yang agreed to let the heiress pay for a hotel room in case the party girl struck out.

Blake had made no effort to contact her, but Weiss figured that would happen. Whatever. Weiss had Ruby confirm that Blake was okay, because Blake wasn't responding to any of her texts or calls-

-but the bookworm had moved a pawn to D5 on Weiss's chessboard. Weiss smiled and moved a pawn to E3.

Well, since she was alone, completely, Weiss figured that maybe she'd slip into swimsuit and do a second money-bath this month. Or pull out her sexy books and do a different kind of personal grooming-

And then she eyed the massive hole in the wall.

"Wait," she said to the empty room, "Did anyone put in a maintenance request for our Dust-forsaken window?"

* * *

It was night and nobody had heard her sneak out of the dorm. Well, nobody had been in her dorm, but occasionally Nora would throw all night parties in the door right across from theirs, so Weiss thought it was a little bit of an earned victory (at least, not just a guaranteed success) that she managed to get to the bathroom with her night bag at two in the morning without anyone seeing her. Weiss was in her pajamas, and her sleep footwear wasn't the best at being silent but Weiss was a little proud that she managed to sneak in them without making undue sound. Not that Weiss fancied herself particularly precocious at the pernicious arts, but Schnees were expected to be multifaceted and, on some occasions, to skirt the gray areas of the law. The optimal thing would be to change the law itself, but that wasn't an option at this juncture.

And besides; this wasn't any sort of grand crime. Just something she wanted to keep from her teammates and from everyone else.

Nobody was in the halls, now, and JNPR's room was silent, so maybe they were partying somewhere else or, possibly, sleeping. So nobody (not that she thought) saw Weiss duck into the bathroom.

And there was nobody visible here; just the soft hum of florescent bulbs, and the glow of the artificial light reflecting on the gray and blue linoleum walls.

"Hello?" She called to the bathroom. Her voice seemed too loud, and the echoing acoustics of the room didn't help. Weiss ducked down in reflex.

But there was no answer. Weiss exhaled in relief.

So Weiss ducked into the nearest toilet and did what she came her to do.

Weiss then pulled some pieces of toilet paper off to wipe some errant vomit around her mouth. She threw it in the bowl and flushed the toilet.

See, this was why she didn't eat cookies. Even if they tasted reasonably good, she'd have to make up for the excess calories, and that always sucked. Or blew, aha.

She went to the nearest sink and pulled out her cup and toothpaste and toothbrush. Schnee's always had impeccable teeth, and any sort of acidic residue would mar that reputation. She rinsed her mouth out and started brushing all her teeth, over and over.

At some point there was a creak from the shower areas. Weiss definitely kept her composure, and definitely didn't flinch or almost lose her balance through her slippers or drop the toothbrush into the sink. Ugh; she couldn't use it anymore if it touched the sink; other people's spit got on that! Whatever; rinsing it with the terrible school-grade soap a couple times might help before she could order another one.

And after she did so, Weiss held her toothbrush in her hand like a weapon- just for comfort, she was aware that it wasn't viable for combat and that it was exceedingly unlikely that she'd get into a fight in a bathroom stall at 2:00 AM- and she ventured around the wall in the bathroom.

There wasn't anyone there, but one sink had a smattering of short black hairs speckled on almost every centimeter of its surface. Gross. Someone didn't clean up when they got ready this morning-

But, actually, it looked like they were recent. There was even a bag of grooming supplies, tucked almost behind a decorative vase.

Weiss looked to the left, and then to the right. There was nobody. She crept over to peak into every bathroom stall. Nobody was there either.

Weiss looked up.

"Oh hey Blake," Weiss said.

Blake blinked. She gracefully somersaulted down to the floor, like some sort of gymnast.

"Schnee," she intoned.

Blake had her hair tied up into a towel and she was was wearing her bedtime yukata and-

Her skin was red around the corners of her mouth and down her neck (not that Weiss tried to look any lower than that or anything) and on what parts of her arms Weiss could see.

Weiss reasserted eye contact and then opened her mouth and closed it. On the second try she managed to speak.

"Are you," Weiss ventured, "Fuzzy?"

Blake froze for a moment, "Would you believe," Blake grumbled to the floor, soft and low, "Severe hirsutism?"

Weiss turned to the "I mean," she began, "Some people might think girls with body hair aren't, like, you know," Weiss shrugged, "Unattractive."

Blake's nostril's flared. "And some people might like girls with a little meat on their bones."

Weiss froze for must a moment. "Oh, some people _say_ that," Weiss threw her hands up in the air. "But no matter how PC you want to be you can't change what you're attracted to."

"Yang's built like an Olympian and she gets laid, like, on an hourly basis."

"Well," Weiss said, puffing out her cheek, just a bit, "She puts herself out there. And I'm sure there's lot of bisexual girls who want a masculine-looking lady."

"Ruby's cookie diet has made her nicely pear-shaped and she's off seducing teachers. Like, not just girls looking for a fling, but like women you go for when you're thirty."

"Ruby wears a waist-cincher! She is very clearly unsatisfied with her weight and is working to correct it."

"No, I'm pretty sure that Ruby is fine with her appearance and that she wears the waist-thingy for fashion reasons." Blake looked a little angry. "And if she was really trying to lose weight, wouldn't she be dieting or something? She looks good the way she is and she knows it."

"Ruby's moved onto a stage of her relationship where her looks don't matter as much," Weiss put her fists on her hips. "And you're one to talk- look how thin and attractive you are."

"I was malnourished most of my life." Blake patted her stomach. "I've actually gained twenty pounds since I've been here."

Weiss almost recoiled. Really? Blake wanted to _gain_ weight- why even would anybody want that-

They glared at each other.

"Hey, so, I won't tell anyone about your," Weiss pontificated in the air, "your Hair disorder if you don't tell anyone about my diet."

Blake scrunched her mouth to the side. "Fine."

They went back to their separate sides of the bathroom. Weiss looked at herself in the mirror; admiring herself- her waistline, her thighs, her small (not that small, though) yet elegant breasts. Yep, she was pretty. Of course she was. It was a result of years of discipline. And it turned out Blake looked the way she did without even trying. That irked her for just a little.

Weiss went back to brushing her teeth. And then, after minutes of silence from her teammate, Blake asked out of the blue: "So why do you like me?"

Weiss almost dropped her toothbrush. "Hey, you said you weren't interested, so fine, whatever. Don't worry about it."

There was more silence. Weiss pulled out her floss.

"But I actively tried to repel you," Blake said over the wall, "So I'm genuinely curious as to why you like me."

"Well," Weiss began. What again was that horrifying malaise had overtaken her when she decided she liked Blake? "You didn't care that I was a Schnee- you looked at me for who I actually was and I don't know. Maybe that was gratifying or something."

"That's not true, though-" Blake said, "I never forgot you were a Schnee, Weiss."

And that really stung. Damn. Whatever.

"Okay, fine," Weiss said, "Maybe you're just really hot."

There were a few quiet chuckles from the other half of the bathroom.

"But that can't be the only thing-"

"Hey, look," Weiss called over, "It's cool and all, but I don't really want to talk about this right now, so..."

"I-" came Blake's voice, "Sorry."

Weiss smirked a bit. "What? _You're_ apologizing?"

"Hey, you're the one that has trouble trying to apologize. I'm completely secure in apologizing when I've messed up."

'No, I meant," Weiss said, "Are you sorry that I don't want to talk about it, or are you sorry for rejecting me in the most brutal way possible, or are you sorry that you don't like me in the same way?"

Blake took a while to answer.

"Can I get back to you on that?"

"Ugh, fine."

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"Alright," said Pyrrha to her patients. She took a steadying breath. "I was called in here because of my conflict resolution skills."

This was team RWBY's dorm; cluttered in a way that, paradoxically, made it look uninhabited, like all that remained were shades of former occupants idly pawing at what remained of their earthly coils. Right now, the lights were off and the closed curtains glowed with intercepted light (they looked new; recently replaced? Maybe the curtains fell off or something), but they'd all been here- in the room- long enough that their eyes had adjusted to the dimness.

Pyrrha gestured towards a scraggly blond boy with a pen and notepad. "Jaune is here as an observer, because conflict resolution is a good skill for a leader to cultivate."

She gestured to a pink haired girl miming around behind her. "Nora is here," began Pyrrha. She sighed a defeated sigh. "To do prat falls to relieve tensions in case they run high."

"And Ren," she pointed a thumb behind her, "is here for moral support."

"Yo," said Ren. He was leaned against the far wall, arms crossed.

"And one last thing," Pyrrha put her hands up, "I should mention that I'm not a licensed councilor, though I have gone through training. If that matters to you..."

Ms. Rose and Ms. Xiao-Long didn't react.

"Excellent." Pyrrha smiled. She looked between her patients. "So where do we begin?"

Ms. Xiao-Long and Ms. Rose were in separate chairs facing Pyrrha. They weren't close to each other by any means, but Ms. Xiao-Long slouched towards the side of the room and stared dejectedly at the wall when she spoke. Ms. Rose leaned forward in her chair, elbows on knees and hands wringing each other under an angry stare.

Pyrrha didn't take it personally. If there was anger, then better it be directed at her than at the other offended party. It might help her patients release their anger, and any blow Pyrrha took, emotional, verbal, physical (though that last one she figured wasn't very likely, this time) made her stronger (Not that she was a masochist- and not that there was anything wrong with that). It was a rite of passage.

"Do either of you want to tell me what this is about?" Pyrrha said. "Why I was brought here?"

"Because Blake is a friggin' narc," muttered Ms. Xiao-Long.

Pyrrha stifled a smile. When Ms. Belladona had asked if she could help her team work out some teamwork issues, Pyrrha couldn't just say no, of course. Sure, it might be awkward, but you didn't learn to overcome awkwardness by just staying out of it. And besides, team RWBY had proven to be loyal friends throughout this past semester; it wouldn't do for them to be fighting.

"Ok, so you feel this is a personal issue that you want to work out yourselves?"

Ms. Rose adjusted her folded arms. "It's not an issue," she mumbled, "We're just not going to interact with each other, ever, and it'll be fine."

Pain flashed across Yang's face, briefly. She clutched her chair a little harder and exhaled.

"Well," Pyrrha said. She smiled and shrugged awkwardly. "That's kind of an issue."

"Well, we're handling it."

Pyrrha smiled sympathetically. "That's not what Blake said. Or Weiss, when she found out about this."

"They're eavesdropping on us right now," Nora added, smiling insufferably.

Pyrrha face-palmed. There were sounds of a struggle on the other side of the door.

"Well maybe you should resolve their interpersonal conflict." Ruby said.

Pyrra frowned slightly. Not Ms. Belladona and Ms. Schnee as well? Erebos, she'd thought those two had chemistry, from the few times she'd seen them interact. Though she'd be the first to admit that, with only a semester of friendship with either of them, there was still a lot she didn't know about them. Pyrrha'd only seen the heiress and the bookworm when they were with the rest of thier team. Maybe she was just projecting her own experiences onto other people.

Pyrrha considered herself lucky that Nora and Ren were something resembling battle-siblings; bound by the blood shed in battle that was thicker than the water of the womb. They way they spoke of their upbringing in the orphanage, it was quite the metaphorical war they survived, together. Nuns were horrifying.

Pyrrha'd had a few blood-sisters herself in her homeland, but, again, she kept herself from trying to project her own experiences onto other people. As she had come to know it, the spartan upbringing was more harsh, socialist, and homoerotic than most people had.

Jaune though was also a blessing; humble when he wasn't trying too hard, eager to please, valuing companionship and just naive enough that personal issues were a matter of rational explanation, easy to describe without succumbing to emotional breakdowns.

So, mostly, Pyrrha's team was getting along well. They had no weak links. It was a shame team RWBY was in such shambles.

"These things happen," said Pyrrha, "We are not here to judge you; just to help you through it."

Ruby and Yang clenched their respective body parts.

"So..." Pyrrha said. She beckoned with her hands.

"Ruby doesn't want me to be her sister."

"Yang doesn't want me to have any sort of agency."

"Ruby's trying her best to say hurtful things to me."

"Yang tried to tear me away from the love of my life."

Yang's face looked pained again. Neither she nor Ruby said anything.

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Yang, is this true?"

Yang turned to her sister, "It's not going to end well-"

"SHUT UP!" Ruby screamed, suddenly, leaning forward in her chair, "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, SO JUST SHUT UP SHUT UP-"

"Ruby!" Pyrrha stood up.

"YOU JUST DON'T WANT TO SEE ME HAPPY!" Ruby screamed.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, RUBY!"

"OH, AND _YOU_ DO?"

"I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP YOU-"

"YOU DON'T LOVE ME, YANG! YOU JUST WANT TO CONTROL ME!"

"AND YOU DON'T LOVE GLYNDA, YOU JUST WANT VALIDATION FROM SOMEONE WHO REMINDS YOU OF YOUR MOM!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING AND I HATE YOU- AARRRGGGGGHHH!"

Pyrrha managed to grab Ms. Rose before the reaper activated her semblance while unrestrained and curbstomped everyone in the room.

"Nora!" Pyrrha ordered.

Nora smiled and saluted and jumped in to restrain the berserker sister. There was a brief kerfuffle, but eventually, Ruby stopped thrashing and Pyrrha was able to let her go. Yang, it seemed, didn't actually have any fight in her, and Nora had just given Ms. Xiao-Long a hug.

Ms. Rose breathed heavily, and Ms. Xiao-Long made some sobbing sounds, so Pyrrha decided to try to break the silence.

"Uh," Pyrrha said, "Did I hear that right?" She turned to Ruby, "You and Ms. Goodwitch?"

Ms. Rose's face froze in shock, but Nora interrupted her.

"Wait, isn't she the teacher you keep calling 'mom'?" Nora asked.

Ruby blushed. "I only did that, like, twice! I definitely know the difference between her and my mother, " Ms. Rose insisted.

"So she's your erastes," Pyrrha let slip.

"My what?"

"Your," Pyrhha felt her face grow hot as she gestured in front of her. She sputtered the next line as quick and quiet as she could, "Mentor/lover I think it translates as Don't worry about it"

"D'aww," Nora said, "That's so cute!"

"You don't think it's weird," said Ms. Xiao-Long. It wasn't a question.

"I- well," Pyrrha refreshed her smile, "I mean, I can see how its weird in your culture-"

"Naw, it's not weird at all," Nora said. "In fact, there's a song about that-"

"Nora, please-" Pyrrha said.

But it was too late. Nora had jumped onto a desk and air-guitared, singing badly, out of key, and very loudly a song about being in love with some neighbor's mom. Pyrrha wondered if anyone could see the magnitude of her distress under hands that clutched her face. She took three long, calming breaths.

Nora finished. Ruby blinked a couple times, and Yang had her mouth open the whole time.

"I actually thought you were thinking of the song about the teacher." Jaune said.

"Oh! I totally spaced that one, let's do it!" Nora said.

"Nora, don't you dare-" Pyrrha tried again, but she was too late, again. Perhaps there was no optimal timeframe, and Nora was literally unrestrainable.

Then Nora jumped back on that desk and air-guitared and sang badly, out of key, and way too loudly a song about being attracted to your teacher. Jaune joined in, on another air guitar, singing the harmonies off key and quite too loudly, but maybe Pyrrha decided he looked cute and she decided to focus on that.

Ms. Xiao-Long and Ms. Rose had matching looks of disbelief.

Jaune and Nora finished. "That was pretty good," Nora said to Jaune.

"Yeah, we should totally start a rock band! I know how to play guitar, a little," Jaune said.

"That's pretty cool," Ruby broke out of her shocked silence to say to Jaune.

"Maybe in a different universe," Ren said, "We are trying to be hunters, after all."

"GUYS." Pyrrha said. She took a calming breath. She turned to Nora and angrily mouthed the viking's name before she continued. "I don't know what you think you're accomplishing, but that was not conducive to conflict resolution, nor was it respectful to emotions at play here. "

Nora actually had the gall to stick her tongue out. Like she completely forgot that one of the patients here just tried to assault her sister.

"Now if we can get back to the situation at hand-"

"Oh yeah!" Nora said. Her expression became a sarcastic mask of seriousness. "To answer your question, Yang, Ruby, it might be a little strange if she's a teacher, but that happens all the time. I mean, some students and teachers end up marrying, so, like, it happens."

"Oh," Ren waved his hand, "I thought you were referring to her age."

"Glynda's old." Ms. Xiao-Long reiterated.

"She's _mature,"_ Ruby mumbled.

"Naw, that's not weird," Nora said, "Glynda's like, a gazillion years old, right?"

"She's _mature,"_ Ruby said, more loudly this time.

"No, I mean," Nora said, waving her arms wide, "She was in the first Grimm war, right? With headmaster Ozpin? They both mention it from time to time."

"I doubt it was the actual first Grimm war," Ren said, softly, from the corner.

Nora waved her hand around Ren's face without looking at him. "And that war was like, a squillion years ago."

"Not quite a squillion," Ren stated.

"So that means Glynda's like an order of magnitude older than anyone, like, ever. Once you're thousands of years old, dating someone 1.5% of your age isn't creepy. So it's cute!"

Ruby smiled a bit at that last part, but Pyrrha was squeezing her temples.

Nora waved the air and shot Pyrrha a smile.

"It think it's less that Ms. Goodwitch is old, and more that Ruby's young," Ren said. He saw Ms. Rose's expression and turned to her and added, "That you're 'statutory rape' young, I mean."

Ruby puffed out her cheek and her face reddened. "We're not having sex or anything! Dust, why does everyone assume that?"

Pyrrha strategically closed her mouth. Nobody needed to know what she almost said.

"Awww," Nora said, "That's so cute! You're willing to wait?"

Ruby blushed slightly.

"And of course, Glynda's willing to wait, since she's basically waiting for the heat death of the universe anyway-"

"Glynda's not immortal, Nora," Pyrrha tried to take a calming breath, "She's just middle aged."

"OR THAT'S WHAT SHE WANTS US TO THINK." Nora waved her hands wildly.

"NORA! NOT HELPING!" Pyrrha stood up and turned to Ms. Valkyrie.

And Pyrrha took a deeper, calming, focusing breath, and she looked to the left, where Jaune was steadfastly taking down notes. She forced a smile.

"I'm sorry for losing my temper," Pyrrha apologized, to everyone in the room and especially herself.

"But I think it's time that I talk to both parties alone. I'd like to start with Yang," Pyrrha said.

Ruby and Yang nodded.

Nora did something annoying with her mouth. "So does that mean-"

"It means ALONE, Nora," Pyrrha gritted.

Nora's face fell just a little. She tilted her head to the side and put her palms up. "I was talking about Jaune, actually."

Jaune was still scribbling down notes. He looked up, between her and Ms. Xiao-Long.

"Umm," Pyrrha looked to Yang, "It might get a little personal. I understand if you just want it to be us to. I promise to keep it completely confidential, if you want."

"I understand too," Jaune said.

"Cool. So Nora," Pyrrha forced a smile, gritted teeth and closed eyes. "Could you and Ren be helpful and take care of Ruby for a little while?"

Nora stood up in a sorry excuse for a salute. "Yes Ma'am!" She snapped her fingers and Ren appeared besides her, and they escorted Ms. Rose out of the room.

After the door creaked shut, Yang slumped back in her chair.

Yang slumped on her chair.

"So," Pyrrha said.

Yang didn't respond.

"So your sister's upset with you." Pyrrha said, trying to prompt a response. It was a Ren-level understatement, though.

Yang's nose twitched, but she didn't say anything.

"Ruby also seems a little depressed-"

"Why's she have to be depressed?" Yang said.

"I, well," Pyrrha said, "I will try to figure that out and help it, as best I can."

Yang started crying now. And now, Pyrrha figured, it was clear that every time Ruby accused her sister of hating her, that pained expression Yang forced at the wall was just her attempting to control her emotions. Now the floodgates were free, and she was letting it all out. "Ruby barely remembered Summer! I was the one who actually got to know her! I got to know both my moms, and Raven actually abandoned me! Raven left, as a conscious choice. Summer just died. Ruby has to recognize that, right? Where does she get off moping about it all the time? Why can't she just-"

Yang wiped her sleeve on her nose. "I could wear a funeral cloak and mope in my bed and cut my arms to shreds, but I want to be happy. I'm trying to actually live my life. Ruby's too busy wallowing in her own self pity to realize that she could just smile and be happy and that she's surrounded by people who love her and that she doesn't have to be depressed."

Pyrrha didn't agree, but she nodded. It was important to nod at people. You never wanted to trivialize anybody's pain- even if they were unaware of the irony when they were doing the exact same thing to were doing the same thing to someone else."Okay. So you feel Ruby doesn't recognize your pain?"

"I don't have any pain," Yang said.

"Okay," Pyrrha nodded. "Are you sure?"

"Not about my mothers, no," Yang said. Pyrrha couldn't definitely conclude whether or not that was a lie. "But I just don't want to dwell on it, right? I just want my sister back."

Pyrrha sat back and took a cogitative breath.

"So first things first; this isn't going to go away overnight," Pyrrha said.

Yang nodded.

"So when I say that you might need to back off a little, don't take that as 'just give up'. I can tell there are a lot of emotions going on here, and let me tell you there's always time to make amends."

Pyrrha went over some other advice she thought of, and then she wrapped things up. Hopefully that would help.

* * *

Pyrrha sent Yang out with instructions to tell Nora to send Ms. Rose in.

Pyrrha had a few moments alone in the dorm to lean back in her chair and take a steadying breath. Several deep, steadying breaths, because this-

This was going to be a challenge. She had offered to kill a snake and had unearthed a hydra.

Pyrrha took an oxygenating breath.

She smiled, in defiance, to nothing in particular.

Ruby came in a little more composed. (Pyrrha would be a little annoyed when it turned out Nora had managed to cheer her up with some balloon animals. That kind of absurdist comedy was not supposed to work, but she would admit defeat if the situation warranted.)

Ruby, though, had pretty straightforward grievances. Not simple, or easily fixable ones, but ones in the vein of which Pyrrha had heard about before. Ruby felt Yang was too possessive and controlling. She was annoyed that Yang presumed to know about her life- not just know about her own preferences- Pyrrha had seen this kind of thing before; nobody wanted other people to interpret them wrong, especially if they were supposed to be intimate.

And, as they talked a bit, Pyrrha discovered a few more of Ruby's issues. Ruby felt alone. She had abandonment issues, and some impostor syndrome, and a whole ton of mommy issues.

Oh, and she was in love with a teacher. Ahahaha.

"And I can't help who I fall in love with." Ruby said defensively, after the subject turned to Ms. Goodwitch and Pyrrha messed up just a bit and made a face.

Pyrrha scrunched her mouth to the side. "I can understand that," she said as neutrally as she could.

"Do you think that's weird?"

Pyrrha bit her tongue.

Ruby smiled softly. "Um. Can I ask what was that word you used before?"

Pyrrha sighed; not in exasperation, but because, a long time back, she promised to herself that she wouldn't lie about her upbringing if prompted but would try to hide it as long as it didn't conflict with any of her other personal image ideals.

"In my culture" Pyrrha sputtered, "When they'd come of age, young soldiers – well, aristocrats, most of which were soldiers- would pair up with an older soldier of the same gender- erastes- the younger one was the eromenos– who'd then train the younger one in combat and social composure and stuff"

Pyrrha bit a cheek at the wall. "And if they didn't want it to, it didn't have to become a romantic relationship, but it often did. 'Training for the real thing', sort of."

Yeah, that sounded almost normal. And it was technically true.

Ruby sat wide-eyed. Pyrrha prepared for judgement.

"So did you have one? A mentor who loved you?"

Pyrrha bit her lip. "Yes."

"And you loved her back?"

Pyrrha took a reminiscing breath. "Yes."

"Oh." Ruby said, "Did- did it work out?"

"It- it was a fairly typical relationship of its kind. We didn't have any lasting feelings or such beyond that which was typical of the station. So when I graduated and came here, we didn't continue it long distance or anything, and neither of us are broken up about it or try to keep in contact. I mean, I send a Hallowmas card every year and stuff, but, um. I guess the answer is 'no', but it didn't implode or anything."

"Oh," Ruby said, sounding slightly disappointed.

Pyrrha cleared her through. "So anyway, about your, uh, life outlook..."

Ruby looked up at her.

"So one thing I think you should try working on," Pyrrha said, "Is keeping track of how many things make you happy, and how many different people make you feel loved. Focusing on the negatives in your life can cause a feedback loop, but I know how hard it can be to try to just force yourself to be happy. Because then everytime you think a bad thought you'll then think that it's bad that you couldn't stop thinking of it, and that's the negative feedback look again." Pyrrha refreshed her smile, and Ruby tried to grin as well. "So, maybe you can get a journal app on your scroll or something?"

Ruby paused just a moment. Then she nodded. "Ok, yeah. I can try that."

"And I told Yang that you need space, so I think that's good to try to keep up, at least for a while. Time is the healer."

Ruby nodded, at first.

"But she's always insulting everything I do," Ruby said, "She's wrong about everything."

"I- okay," Pyrrha said, "If you want to prove that Yang is wrong," Pyrrha began. Agreeing with Ruby was probably the best way to go about this, "You should make sure you're not conflating 'love' with a need for validation. Then, you make sure you're not getting yourself into a doomed relationship, and you're proving Yang wrong as well."

Ruby glared at her, confused at first, and then angry. "What?"

"I mean," Pyrrha said, "You said you think of Ms. Goodwitch as an era- as a mentor figure? I know that someone might tie their self-esteem to praise they get from one specific person."

Ruby nodded tentatively, "I like her for more than just that though. Yang doesn't know what she's talking about."

"Okay, yeah, you know yourself best," Pyrrha said. "I just want to make sure you're cognizant of that."

* * *

Later, at lunch, Pyrrha tracked down her teammate. She took a fortifying breath and approached, without fear.

"Hey Nora," Pyrrha said, "Do you have a moment?

"Yeppers! What did you need?"

Pyrrha took a steadying breath. When she looked at her teammates, and how well the got along, Pyrrha hadn't considered that maybe she was the weak link; the one most prone to conflict.

"I want you to know that there's no hard feelings about yesterday. I intend to do whatever it takes to make it up to you."

Nora tilted her head. "Why would you need to make something up to me?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth. Then she closed it. "No reason, I guess."

They ate across from each other in silence.

* * *

"Okay, that was dishonest of me," Pyrrha said, "And I don't want this to fester. I was angry with you earlier, because I didn't think you were taking Ruby and Yang's issues with each other seriously."

"That's ok," Nora said, perfectly cheerfully, "You're probably right." Nora took a grand bite of her sandwich. She didn't offer to say anything else.

"But-" Pyrrha said, "Then what are you doing to make sure it doesn't happen again, and what did you learn from that experience?"

"I dunno," Nora said, " _I'm_ willing to forgive. The situation worked itself out, so what's there to change? Sound's like you're just making a big deal out of nothing."

"Nora," Pyrrha said as gently as she could. "I don't want this to fester. I just said that."

"Hey, I'm not letting anything fester. Let's just forget the whole thing. "

Pyrrha took a calming breath, with her eyes closed.

Then she opened them.

"Sounds good," Pyrrha said. She smiled at Nora. Nora smiled at her.

And they continued to eat across from each other in silence.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ruby made her way down to the weapons's foundry and immersed herself in the smell of oil and ozone and metal and the dull methodical mechanical roar of background machinery. She swiped in and picked up a pair of safety goggles and reserved the electric whetstone for half an hour. She glanced around the mostly empty facilities- even peeking into the electronics wing and the practice arenas- and she didn't find the student she was hoping to see here. Oh well.

"I don't need validation," she whispered, not just to herself; Crescent was here, under her arm.

Ruby put her weapon on an open public workbench, just besides the whetstone, and she started disassembling Crescent- just enough to pop the edged portion out, the three little blades that formed the slashing portion.

"I don't need a mom, or a sister, and I _definitely_ don't need anyone's approval or validation."

Ruby slung the body of Crescent over her shoulder and sat down at the whetstone and started grinding Crescent's blades.

"But is it wrong to want that? If I don't need it, but I'm better for it, is that wrong, Crescent?" Ruby said.

Crescent sparked and groaned during the sharpening.

"Okay." Ruby said. "And I have friends, and I have Glynda, and I have you and uncle Qrow and Zwei and Dad. That's enough family. I mean, there's plenty of perfect, non-nuclear families. I don't need to fill all the spaces if I can be- be whole, or whatever- with what I have, right? I mean, if I only had Glynda, that might be enough, right? So, since there's more than I need, I don't need to forgive Yang. I don't need her in my life, or her approval, or any sister, for that matter."

Ruby scrunched her face again. She loved Crescent and all, but she was sort of hoping her unofficial weaponsmithing mentor would be here to talk philosophy to. Ruby finished up with the first long blade and started on the second.

"And I didn't even want a sister, anyway," Ruby said.

But Crescent caught that that was a lie. And Ruby sighed; yeah, maybe she did want a sister- but not Yang, definitely not stupid Yang; it'd be someone who respected her and would give her space to be herself but would always be there if Ruby failed, and someone who didn't feel the need to put on fake smiles and hide her feelings- someone Ruby could talk to about equally about dating and weaponry and feeling sad, sometimes maybe. But she'd be as good at hugs as Yang was.

And yeah, maybe Ruby did want a mom- but not Summer; someone different, someone better, who would teach her how to be be strong and how to be a woman and how to be an adult and would help her bake cookies on the weekends and wouldn't ever, ever leave her- and it wouldn't be Glynda in this fantasy, no, because Glynda would be Ruby's wife, in this fantasy world.

And, Ruby figured, as long as she was entertaining a fantasy, she'd make Qrow less alcoholic and Taiyang less depressed (haha, like she was one to talk about that) and Zwei would be twice as fluffy and have two good eyes. And Crescent could talk in the audible spectrum and Blake and Weiss were friends with each other and Ruby'd live in a gingerbread castle and could eat as many cookies as she wanted without getting fat. And maybe Summer would come back to life and they could have a long talk and she'd get probationary visitation rights. And, while she was at it, she'd probably cure cancer and vanquish all Grimm and, fuck it, just make everyone immortal. Because if she was retreating from reality, she might as well go whole hog.

Ruby sighed and started on the third blade. With her remaining time on maintenance, though, Crescent managed to reassure her a bit that no matter what, Ruby would at least have Crescent. And as Ruby finished reassembling her weapon, she herself felt a little more put together.


	8. Two Gifts and some Philosophy

-OOO-

* * *

Glynda realized she'd been staring, so she blinked and turned her head to admire the sunset through her office's window.

It didn't last long; just a brief moment, seeing how the spring dusklight contrasted with the green of the summer tree tops and the browns and grays of dirt and bare stone on the nearby mountain.

Then Glynda turned her gaze back to her favorite student.

Ruby was hunched over her new (new as in she just got it, not that it was a book, eyes wide and mouth opened in wonder as she flipped through the ancient pages. Strands of Ruby's red, feathery hair occasionally fell into her face and she'd tuck them behind her ear in the cutest little motion. The timid twilight cast soft shadows on the left side of her face.

This whole thing- these late night study sessions, the chess-playing, the storytelling (the divulging way too much of her life to someone she couldn't' be intimate with, Glynda's inner demon chided), and now the extracurricular education- it was all, Glynda decided, just an extension of her teaching. She wasn't doing anything but tutoring a very promising pupil.

The only snag was that Glynda was a mage, and Ruby was a melee-focused weaponmaster. Their disciplines didn't exactly align- if Ruby were to choose a mentor more focused in weaponsmiting, then Professor Oobleck would be the natural mentor choice.

But Ruby was exceptional in Glynda's Aura Manifestation class- and that was the first step to spellcasting, to Glynda's discipline.

Glynda had a copy of the textbook she used for beginning spellcasting- it was her one of her first copies of the textbook- her one personal copy, at one point. The fundamentals of magic hadn't changed in the last deca- well, however long she was willing to admit she'd been teaching, so despite its age it was perfectly fine as an introduction to the craft.

Ruby occasionally asked questions about the book and about the subject material and about the class; how old was this book? (literally 3.52 bajillion years) how useful magic was in comparison to weaponmastery? (it depended on how hard you trained with either), how long normally did it take to learn to cast spells without a focus, or without dust even? (a couple years and about a decade, on average, respectively), and sometimes Ruby asked more personal questions; what was the first spell Glynda'd cast? (Bubble Barrier), what her elemental focus was (Psychokinesis), if she was skilled enough with psychokinesis could she disarm and bind someone remotely? (...Yes) and could she show her? (Most decidedly not).

And the little notes in the margins might help a curious mind like Ruby's. If she were to take the advanced track, she'd take that class next semester. The advanced spell focused one, that Glynda taught. If she went with the typical class schedule her class would suggest, she wouldn't have Glynda as a teacher until next year, but Glynda would be happy to help accelerate Ruby through her courses.

(And the little, hand-written notes in the margins- notes from Glynda's past (not anything personal, but still, it was her writing, her thoughts, her notes)- might make the gift seem special, especially to Ruby. To have something that once belonged to her favorite teacher.)

And maybe the goal of this gift was secretly to change Ruby's academic focus, Glynda's inner demon said. To get her student to be in a position more likely to spend more time with her, in the coming years. Not that the thought didn't hole a certain appeal to the teacher (wait, was this her accepting this whole situation? Was trying to convince Ruby to take more of Glynda's classes an unspoken insistence that she liked what they had here- that Glynda wanted this relationship? These afternoon hugs and storytimes- this dance upon the precipice of horrible taboo?- Did that belie a desire to take this relationship fully into taboo? Hopefully not-)

Because, her inner demons chided, she knew that Ruby would do anything Glynda asked of her, including changing the entire direction of her hunting technique. That scared Glynda- just a bit, to know that she held the direction of one student's future in her hands. She could tell Ruby to do anything- literally anything (and here her inner demon spoke in Ruby's voice, only with a sultry inflection in which no fifteen-year old should speak to an adult), and Ruby would, she'd do it with a smile and after-wards ask Glynda in an earnest, childish voice if it pleased her, if she did whatever it was to Glynda's satisfaction.

But surely Ruby wouldn't let Glynda guide her into something she didn't want to do, right? Surely Glynda didn't have that much influence- Ruby didn't like her _that_ much.

Glynda's inner demon laughed.

"Why do you like me?" Glynda asked. She immediately wondered what would possess her to actually voice her concern.

Ruby looked up with earnest, confused silver eyes. "W-what?"

"I-" Glynda began. She didn't finish.

"How can you ask that?" Ruby said. She closed the book and looked deeply into Glynda's eyes. "You're smart and kind and beautiful," Ruby said, "How could I not?"

"Lots of people are smart and kind and- beautiful, thank you, but the way- but- why is it about _me_ specifically-" Glynda didn't mean for her voice to crack. She bit her lip and looked away.

Ruby was silent for a moment.

"You saved me," said the girl, softly.

Ruby leaned over her book. "You listen; you heard my cries for help and you didn't leave until you knew it was all better. You saw a struggling, lost little girl and saved her-not just on that rooftop with the helibird. Every time I feel like I'm climbing a mountain that never ends or that I'm being slowly dragged under an ocean of doubt- you're there, and you're always so encouraging. All the times when I find myself flailing in the dark- everytime (Well, most times), now, when I feel I can't do it I think of you and you give me hope."

"And I love who you are- I love the way you let a strand of hair fall out of your bun, when the day's been dragging on and your hairdo gets loose. I love how you push your glasses up the bridge of your nose when you're reading a book at your hip. I love the way the corners of your mouth turn upwards when you're happy, and I love your smile, Glynda- I know that's cliche, but I do, I really do-"

"And I love what we've shared together- our lunch at the cultural festival, our dance under the stars up on the astronomy tower- I love how you held me- how you hold me. It's nice."

"And maybe, uh," Ruby's smile curled into a nervous laugh for a second, "I like it when you say you're proud of me. I look up to you, Glynda. That's not wrong, is it?"

"So that's- that's why, Glynda," Ruby reached her hand out to the desk, laying it atop her teacher's, "Glynda, there's so many reasons why I like you," Ruby whispered. She squeezed Glynda's hand.

Glynda looked down at where Ruby held her hand, ad then up into Ruby's wide, brilliant silver eyes, staring right at her, staring warmly and lovingly and- Holy Dust, Ruby really meant all that, didn't she? Ruby really- she really-

Glynda pulled her hand back and coughed and looked at the wall through rapidly-fogging glasses-

And now her head was swimming. Let's just leave it at that.

And she'd just sort of insulted Ruby by pulling away, didn't she?

Ruby was still smiling at her, though now it didn't quite reach her eyes. Oh Dust, Glynda'd messed up, hadn't she-

"So, uh," Ruby said to the desk, "Why do you like _me,_ Glynda?" She looked up with her eyes.

"I-" Glynda's heart trembled, "Ruby, you know I can't- I - "

"You're spending all your weeknights with me when you could be doing anything else, and you're giving me your old book- and it's an amazing gift, I love it so much- so," Ruby whispered, "So could you just ease my mind, a little? Please? I – I just, want to know why you like me..."

Glynda's heart trembled and her lips wobbled and her eyes started malfunctioning.

"Ruby," Glynda whispered, "Don't make me do this-"

Ruby's face fell, just a bit, for just a moment.

And Ruby sighed a very controlled sigh. Her nose twitched once and oh Dust her eyes were starting to water. "I-it's okay, if you don't- It's okay if you don't have a reason like that to like me for anything- I know I'm, I'm not-"

"Ruby no," Glynda said. She stood up and rushed around her desk to lean down and hug her student. "Ruby, you're wonderful. And- and-"

Glynda made the mistake of making eye contact. It shattered what remained of her composure.

Surely she could just vocalize something- just a quick, idle nothing, something that befitted the moment-

Just say it. Mouth the words- just say it, just say -

 _I might love you too._

But it might not be true-

But Ruby was really vulnerable right now and she needed reassurance-

So giving false reassurances is the worst thing you can do right now-

So just tell the truth-

What if she didn't know the truth-

"I do enjoy spending time with you," Glynda said, as she struggled to find something else to say. And that was true. Just, a lower-key sort of truth.

But that seemed to to put Ruby at ease. Ruby rubbed her head on Glynda's shoulder, twice and smiled a genuine smile and she asked another question about magic as she leaned out of the hug and procured her new textbook.

* * *

And after Ruby left, with another hug and a hopeful smile- in the lamp-lit solitude of her now-empty office, Glynda slumped back against her chair and noted how her hands were trembling too much to do anything and Glynda thought long and hard about what Ruby had asked her.

Was there specific reason she liked Ruby? She'd been so focused on the 'why not' that she'd never really condenser the 'why'.

Well, Ruby liked her. That was gratifying on some level, but it wouldn't sustain a relationship- and besides, being in a relationship with someone solely because they inflated your ego was terrible for both people-

But Glynda did, actually, enjoy spending time with Ruby- that wasn't a lie, so now she just had to sort her increasingly and ever more infuriatingly jumbled brain kerfuffles to find out why specifically she liked Ruby- why the hopeful lost little girl was her favorite student-

Oh, wait, that was it. Haha, it was so obvious, in retrospect. The thing about Ruby that Glynda liked? It was just was an extension of what Glynda liked about any favored student; she was hardworking, when Glynda prompted her, she was intelligent and inquisitive and wanted to learn, wanted to listen to what Glynda had to say, and yeah, it might not be especially special because, again, that's just what Glynda liked about any favored student-

Oh Dust, did Glynda have a student fetish?

"What do you mean by 'student fetish'?" Ozpin asked when Glynda told him, the next time they had their tea and philosophy and games. Today, they'd tabled their chess games to try to learn _Go_. It wasn't going so well, in part because Glynda was distracted, and was forgetting the rules.

"I mean-" Glynda said, "If I like the prospect of a model student too much- not necessarily sexually, but just, emotionally- That's- that's creepy, right?"

But Ozpin smirked a bit, "Oh, you mean you think you enjoy driven, intelligent people who dote upon your every word and do whatever you tell them and like the same subjects you like?" Ozpin smirked. "I can't think of any reason why that would be appealing."

Glynda shot him a flat look and reached for her tea.

Ozpin pontificated. "I think a healthy student-teacher relationship-"

Glynda choked on her tea again.

"As in to say, a healthy model for how an ideal student and an ideal teacher interact-"

Glynda pounded her sternum and cleared her throat. Of course that's what he meant.

"Should involve both parties growing fond of one another, as they share ideas and experiences. That's one of the most common avenues to becoming friends, yes? So student-teacher relationships are just a variation of natural friendship, you could say."

Glynda nodded and did a brief glance over their rulebook again, to see how stones flipped colors.

"I guess if I had to oversimplify it," Ozpin said. He flipped over a block of Glynda's stones he had surrounded, "As long as you're actually committed to being a teacher, and you're not just using students to validate your self-image as a teacher, then it's fine. I mean, if you took off the 'teacher' and 'student' label, do you think the relationship would seem all right?"

Glynda's mind dropped an alarm level. Yeah, that all made some kind of sense. Now she could devote some of her freed up brainspace to figuring out how to strategize stone captures.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Three days since drama hurricane; situation improving, hope brightening.

Pyrrha was good at therapy, it seemed. Ruby and Yang no longer tried to kill each other on sight. Good; that was getting hard to plan around.

Blake had ducked out when Pyrrha asked if maybe Blake and Weiss needed some interpersonal conflicts resolved too. They didn't; current status of passive-aggressive mumblings and chess playing was adequate.

And Blake had new friends now; Velvet: really cool, but cared less about Faunus rights than she should, Fox; reticent, but when spoke was always interesting, Coco; kind of funny sometimes; Yatsuhashi; very smart, was of same religion as her, though Blake wasn't very devout.

But today; worst thing happened: Schnee was sitting with Velvet and Yatsuhashi, when Blake walked into cafeteria.

Also, cafeteria only had fishy-sticks today. They smelled kind of fishy BUT NOT FISHY ENOUGH. Bluh. They didn't even have faces on them, unless Blake carved them in herself. But Schnee thing was the important thing; much more distressing. Probably at least three times as distressing as the suboptimal fishy food Blake had piled onto her plate.

Velvet, Yatsushi were on one side of table, Schnee on other; all three arguing about something. They stopped when Blake approached.

Blake sat down one chair away from Schnee, across from Velvet. She closed her eyes, ate in silence.

"Hey," Sc- Wei- Schnee began. Looked nervous. Apologetic? No, too much to hope for.

Schnee moved to sit adjacent to her. _Gross._

"I-" Schnee said, "I brought you a sandwich. It's a tuna melt."

TUNA!-

Blake breathed; focused, calmed, reasserted priorities. "Please don't do that."

"Why not?" Weiss bit lower lip; gross. "I wanted to say I'm- uh," Schnee said, "I regret that you have a problem with me and I would like to ameliorate the situation."

"Well, too bad!" Blake said, "And I don't want your stupid sandwiches!"

Schnee pouted; gross. "Then you can throw it away for me." She handed Blake the bag.

Blake grabbed the sandwich bag. Should throw it away; would show Schnee. Didn't want sandwich, no matter how good it smelled.

And it did smell reallllly good. Was still warm, too.

Blake stared at the bag.

.

Blake opened bag. Argh. Well, better than fishysticks.

Schnee cleared throat. "Hey, so-"

Then, Coco approached, Fox holding her elbow. "Woah woah woah," Coco said, "Did we become some sort of freshman charity table when I wasn't looking?"

"Is that a [stupid Altesian name] scarf?" Weiss said, "That's pretty stylish."

Coco looked approving. "It is, actually. And thanks."

"And that's a limited edition [stupider Altesian name] hat!"

Coco looked in surprise. "You know [Altesian designer]'s work?

"I've followed [jargon jargon words words words] for a little over a year now, and [dumb bullshit words words]."

Fox (always looked straight ahead, head down) tugged Coco's sleeve, leaned in to Coco's ear. Coco narrowed eyes at Schnee; gratifying, made Blake smile. "But if you say anything racist, we're literally going to kick you out. In the butt."

"What?" Schnee said, "I- I'd never do that!" Blake's fists clenched, "Actually, that's what I wanted to ask about..."

"Yeah?"

Schnee cleared throat. "I wanted to get a better view of Faunus, y'know, from an actual one of them."

"So it's my job to give that to you, huh?" Velvet said; condescending. Yesss.

Schnee was flustered; awesome. "I- I guess not, but I'd really appreciate it if you, you know, gave me some information about them?"

"Why? To better exploit them?" Fox joked. Schnee made most exasperated face.

"I think we should give her a chance," Yatsuhashi said to his team, "If she's earnest, then we can be a force for good."

"And if she's not we have the moral high ground when we kick her in the butt later." Fox said.

"Is it too hard to believe that I just want to get a better understanding of the races of Remnant?" Schnee said.

"Well, you just spent this morning talking about how ideals were useless," Blake said, "So yes. Yes it is."

"If you'd actually been paying attention, you would have heard that I said that ideals can be good, but if you care more about your ideals than results, then you're a fool."

"Oh, so you'd give up your ideals as soon as they're not useful?"

Schnee looked incredulous. "Uh, yeah?"

"Then they're not really ideals! You're just picking what's best for the moment."

"Uh, yeah. So why would you have ideals then?"

Why? Wha- How did Schnee ever get this far in life without- whatever. "Ideals make you a good person." Crap; sounded stupid when said out-loud.

"I think she's trying to say that ideals motivate and ground a person, and provide a compass for when its hard to be the person one wants to be." Velvet said.

"I think that's arguable," Yatsu said to Schnee, "I'd be happy to discuss it with you sometime."

Schnee smiled. Blake glared.

"But-" Blake said, "Brutus was clearly the hero-"

"You thought Brutus was the hero?" Schnee said, "The whole play was clearly a chronicle of his fall from grace."

"Oh, just because he starts a revolution? Poor widdle rich girl doesn't think hero's should stand up to authoritarians?"

"No," Schnee snapped, "I don't think heros should stab someone they claim to love in the back! Nobody who really loves you would betray you like that."

Blake paused. "Well, sometimes people do," she mumbled.

"Brutus's devotion to his ideals allowed him to be continuously manipulated by a string of people who actually knew what they wanted and knew how far they were willing to go to get it. Do you want to be that kind of person? Who gets used by everyone because you make it so easy?"

Blake grit teeth, stared at sandwich. "...no."

"And you know how Brutus ended up at the end? Impaled on his own sword. _That's_ what loving your ideals more than getting results gets you, regardless of whether you think you're the hero or not."

"At least he believed in something more than himself! You think Marc Antony was happy in the end?"

"Uh, Marc Antony ended up _alive,_ at the head of an empire, so yeah, I think he was happier than Brutus."

"Ugh, you know what? Fine." Blake said. Turned away, aggressively ate sandwich; large bites, fast chewing. Stomach felt bad from losing to Schnee.

"Sweet Frithrah," Velvet said, "When are you two going to make out?"

WHAT.

Stomach physically lurched at that.

Stood up; looked Velvet in eye. "What are you even talking about?"

"Oh," Velvet grinned feverishly, "Making out is when two people press their drooling face-holes against each other to resolve built-up, smoldering sexual tension-"

"I will _never_ press _any_ part of my body against Weiss's gross translucent human grubflesh!" Stomach churned again, "And I am aware of what 'making out' is."

Velvet smiled harder. "Oh? That's an oddly specific way to phrase that for someone who'd never press their-"

"Seriously!" Blake yelled, "What do I have to convince people I don't like her!" Pointed at Schnee. Schnee shirked in her seat.

"Hey, you've got me convinced," Coco said.

"I'm actually getting more of a kisesmitude vibe from you two," Fox said.

"I feel that that's clearly just angry sexual tension," Yatsuhashi said.

Stomach lurched harder. Blake sat down; aggressively chewed sandwich.

Schnee coughed into the silence. "So anyway, uh," Schnee said, "I came here to ask what its like to be a Faunus?"

Velvet puffed out her cheek- Filled it with lettuce. "Well, I can't really sum up the entirety of my racial experiences in a sound byte. You want my whole life story? We'd be here all day."

"Well, uh-"

"And forgive me of I'm not quite willing to divulge secrets of my life to someone I just met, who happens to be a Schnee."

"Y-you don't have to do anything like that," Schnee said, "Just, uh, maybe you could answer a few general, nonspecific questions?"

Blake steadied nerves. Tried to ignore conversation.

Velvet chewed. "Ok, fine. I'll bite; what's on your mind?"

"So, uh," Schnee said, "The ears?"

"What about the ears?"

"Are they real?"

Velvet laughed. "Wow, you really don't know anything about Faunus."

Schnee blushed, puffed out cheek.

"Yeah, I hear out of the the animals ears." Velvet pointed to top of head.

"So what about the human ones on the side of your head?"

"Oh those? Mostly vestigial cartilage. I can't actually hear anything out of them."

"Wow, so they're completely useless?" Schnee asked.

"They feel good when they're nibbled."

Yatsu flattened mouth, stared into distance.

"-though not as good as when my real ears are nibbled-"

Velvet wiggled eyebrows at Yatsu. Yatsu ignored her.

Velvet smirked fever grin, "Or when other parts of me are nibbled-"

"Tails!" Schnees said. She was blushing, sweating slightly, "The animal tails- what about those?"

"Oh! Yeah, most Faunus also have tails. I know some people complain about human-normative pants, but I've found it's not too hard to cut a hole or just wear a skirt."

"And whiskers?"

Velvet crinkled hers. Blake discreetly scratched the corners of her mouth. "If their animal aspect had them, then yeah. They make nuzzling more fun."

"And I've seen some Faunus with horns?"

"Some Faunus have horns. Others have claws or tusks. They're, like, a recessive gene or something."

"How about food?" Schnee said, "Like, uh, specific diets?"

Velvet looked at her lettuce. "Some Faunus are better at digesting some foods. Some can't digest certain foods, but mostly we're all omnivores."

"Faunus can't eat human food?"

"It's sort of like a food allergy," Velvet said. "Like, I'm not going to make deal of Coco for being gluten-sensitive. And, actually, I _can_ digest animal-flesh, I'm just mostly vegetarian. "

"Ok. And are there other physical differences?"

"Yeah," Velvet said, "Faunus don't menstruate."

Schnee spit out her drink.

"Well, Simian and Chiroptera aspect Faunus do. But for the most part, we follow estrous cycles rather than menstrual ones."

"So you don't get," Schnee lilted, "Y'know, feelings of sexual attraction unless you're in heat?"

"Oh, they do," Yatsu said; face flat, "It's just more pronounced during the breeding seasons."

"Yeah, and let me tell you how annoying it is when I'm trying to get my sexy on and my boyfriend's in the middle of some weeklong aesthetic prayer."

"We've been over this," Yatsu said, "I don't think it's fair that you're trying to make me choose between two things that are important to me."

"And maybe I don't think my embleer boyfriend should be casting judgment on the way I want to live my life!"

"Well then maybe you should get a better boyfriend." Yatsuhashi stated.

"Well fine!" Velvet folded arms. Both of them chewed their food, aggressively.

"Wait," Weiss said, "I didn't mean to make you break up-"

Velvet waved the air. "Not your fault. Blame the lunar calendar."

"I always do, ohhh!" Coco said, high-fived Velvet.

"Dibs on Yatsu," said Fox.

"DUSTDAMMIT," Coco said. "Fine."

"So Yatsu-" Fox began.

"Fox, I just got out of a relationship," Yatsuhashi stated. "Give me some space."

"So Velvet," Coco began.

"I don't appreciate being second choice, shisno." Velvet turned to Schnee, "So was there anything else you wanted to know?"

Schnee moved mouth. "Uh, yeah, with the animal aspects," Schnee said, "Is it only mammals that can- is it only mammal aspects for Faunus?"

"Yes," Velvet said, the same time Fox said "No."

"I'm pretty sure it's just mammals," Velvet said, annoyed.

"Bird Faunus." Fox said.

"Oh," Velvet said. "Yeah, I forgot birds aren't mammals."

"Technically speaking, they're dinosaurs," Fox said, softly.

"Birds aren't mammals? They're warm blooded." Coco said.

"Yeah, but they don't lactate." Velvet said.

Schnee choked again, slightly. "Bird Faunus don't lactate?"

Velvet; looked cross. "They do when they're breastfeeding. I mean, you're not lactating right now. Faunus aren't _literally_ animals, ya embleer hraka."

"Hey!" Weiss said, "I don't smell bad." A little later, when Schnee thought nobody was looking, Schnee sniffed own armpit, discreetly.

Velvet smirked. "You and every other human who thinks that make a bigger setback to Human-Faunus relations than the Underburrow embassy fires."

"You- you can't joke about that," Blake said.

"For once, Blake and I appear to agree," Weiss said. "But I am very diligent about my personal hygiene."

"Fine fine." Velvet's nose crinkled, "But do you really think zinc and pine-needles is a good olfactory combination?"

"I-I've been experimenting with different perfumes," Schnee said. Blake had noticed, last few weeks, but was determined not to say anything about it. Schnee then frowned. "Besides, I thought Faunus didn't like to bathe."

Blake grit teeth. She didn't _need_ to bathe every day. Twice a week was good enough for anybody.

"Hey, we're comfortable enough with our natural scents to not have to wash them off every time," Velvet said.

"Faunus also smell better if they're more physically fit," Fox said, "It's, like, pheromones or something, when you're muscular and symmetrical. So not bathing just makes us sexier."

"O-kay, I'll take that last one with a grain of salt. Or baking powder, aha." Nobody else laughed. Weiss forced a smile, "But yeah, thanks for giving me an overview."

"Though I'm not sure why you're asking us," Fox said, "Since one of your team's part Faunus."

Blake froze, stomach chumbled, tried to give death glare; then remembered Fox was blind. Schnee dropped eating utensil.

"W-hat?"

Velvet shrugged, "We can tell by the smell. Yang almost covers it with the scent of charcoal and gunpowder."

"And sex," Fox added. "I'd bet money on her being at least 50% Faunus."

What?

Blake spit out her bite. Weiss choked for third time; started coughing. Considered patting Weiss's back; thought better of it.

"Wait," Weiss said, "Yang's a – a-"

"I give it 70% odds she'll say 'mulatto',"

"It's a Schnee we're talking about," Velvet said, "She's going to say 'half-breed', or one of the slurs."

"As a matter of fact," Schnee snapped, "I was simply going to say 'mixed race'. But are you sure about that, though? She's never mentioned it at all."

"Oh, one of your teammates didn't tell a Schnee about her Faunus ancestry? I wonder why," Velvet said; dripping sarcasm.

Stomach lurched again.

Wait. Why? Last part wasn't gross or mortifying-

Blake closed her eyes, became aware of her body: lightheaded, shaky limbs, slight shortness of breath: not good.

Checked sandwich; heart stopped beating, just a moment.

"Are there... onions in this?" Blake asked.

Velvet; nose crinkled. "I don't smell any."

Weiss smiled. "Only the finest hydro-treated onions money can buy."

"Why are they hydro-treated?" Coco said.

"To get rid of the smell," Velvet said.

"You get what you pay for," Weiss said.

Blake was only half paying attention; head swimming.

Velvet looked concerned; held out hand to Blake. "Do you need one of us to escort you to the nurses?"

"No~" Blake said; own voice sounded distant.

Weiss looked concerned. "W-whats going on?"

Stood up; only stumbled a little. "I can't eat onions." Sounded weak, distant, "I will be going to the infirmary."

* * *

-[]-

* * *

It's interesting to note how quickly things can fall apart-

Oh just consign it all to Dust; Weiss couldn't even think of an eloquent way to describe this situation.

"I-" Weiss stood up to mirror her teammate, "I can take you there if you want-"

"No~," Blake seethed, though she had less of that angry energy than usual (which, Weiss lamented, was probably not because she wasn't angry, but because she physically didn't have the energy to seethe. She didn't even glare at her when she spoke. ) "I can make my way there myself~"

"I-is there anything I can do-"

Blake pushed a bundle of wax-paper and partially eaten sandwich into Weiss's hands, "You can throw this in the trash for me."

Blake started walking out of the cafeteria.

Weiss opened her mouth. "I'm sor-" the words died in her throat. Dustdammit, why couldn't she just say it?

Blake walked out of eyeshot.

"I'm sorry," Weiss said, too little too late. There was no way it carried across the cafeteria.

So she sat down at the table and slumped in her seat.

stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid

Weiss seethed again, crystallizing her anger at herself and a little at Blake-

"How was I supposed to know she was allergic to onions?" Weiss whispered to the table.

Velvet seemed to think that was funny. "Well, your assassination attempt almost worked," she said.

"I wasn't trying to assassinate her!"

"Then why'd you specifically get hydrotreated onions on the murder weapon? Eliminate all traces of the act."

"Well, they were the most expensive ones," Weiss said. It was self-explanatory, really.

"Wow. That's very sad. You just went for the most expensive one, rather than something actually meaningful?" Fox said.

Weiss didn't have the energy to shoot him a glare. And then she remembered he was blind, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

"You know," Velvet wiggled her eyebrows, "That sandwich probably still has some of Blake's saliva on it."

Weiss's heart jumped against her ribcage. "Wh- I- Hu- I'm not going to eat her leftovers! Dust!"

"You can't tell me you don't wanna go all smoochy town on 'lil Blakey."

Weiss closed her eyes. She felt her face heat up. "Blake has firmly and unambiguously expressed her disinterest in me, romantically, and I respect her wishes and have abandoned any 'smoochy town' desires I may or may not have had at any juncture."

Fox sighed, "I know that mentality," he said, "You think when she says 'no' she's actually saying 'try harder'."

"What? No! I wouldn't do that! That's disgusting!"

"Then why are you still chasing after her?"

"Because we're teammates!" Weiss said, "And yeah, sure. I 'messed up'." Weiss made air quotes with her fingers. "I've insulted her, and I misread her anger as passion and her willingness to argue with me as interest in what I have to say and all sorts of things and I got her a sandwich she was allergic to- and that just means I need to apologize."

"Or you could go the other way around," Velvet said, and she had that feverish blush in her cheeks as she smirked a rictus grin, "And just piss her off until she just snaps and bends you over and takes out her anger by spanking your skinny racist butt."

–-!

"I- I- wh~~?"

"See this?" Coco said, smiling, "This is what I wanted the whole time you were going on about race relations. So Weiss; spanking."

"Duly noted," Yatsuhashi said, "But it seems to have short-circuited our new guest here."

"I- You guys are awful," Weiss ended up saying, but she didn't get up to leave or anything.

"Guilty as charged," Yatsuhashi said, "So did Velvet peg your fetish right then?"

"I- no. Shut up."

"Hey, nothing wrong with that," Velvet said.

"I have some rope and a safety cutter you can borrow," Yatsuhashi said.

"And I have a riding crop, if you get tired of hairbrushes." Velvet said.

"Don't ask her why she has one," Yatsuhashi said.

Velvet and Yatsuhashi smirked at each other, for just a moment.

"I respectfully decline," Weiss managed to find the composure to say.

And they had the most uncomfortable conversation Weiss had ever been a part of (until the next Tuesday, it would turn out) but hey, Velvet and Yatsuhashi managed to get back together during it, so that was a silver lining.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Blake spat out her her gelatin; not her favorite food, decidedly. Tossed garbage into trash-can; didn't miss this time.

Infirmary was... impersonal. Deliberately, probably. Vase of artificial flowers, painting of boat. Smelled like rubbing alcohol and respiratory infections. Small desk lamp, good for reading. Left arm had a needle, attached by tube to a bag of medicine; made moving around awkward, but Blake had had books on her when she checked in; hoped to catch up on some novels through the night.

Had peeked in this room before, eleven days ago, but hadn't gone in, then.

Then, a knock; door opened-

It was Schnee.

Blake glared.

"H-hey," Schnee said, to ground, "How's your stomach?"

Glared harder. "How's your arm?" Blake spat.

Schnee patted left forearm. "Still broken. Whatever."

Blake blinked. "What?"

Schnee shrugged. "It's just a little fracture."

"I definitely recall your arm being limp and bleeding."

"They popped my shoulder back in and patched the cut that night, but even with the medigel the arm should take a week before it's completely fine."

"More if you aggravate it."

Schnee shot incredulous look. "I only did one combat related thing since then. I'm fine for most everyday things, and I lightened up on my exercises."

"Shouldn't you be wearing a cast or something?"

Weiss shrugged again. "I've been icing the nerves, so it doesn't bother me."

Blake plumbed her medical knowledge, couldn't think of anything to say.

Blake cleared her throat. "The Nurse says I'm most likely fine, but I get to miss class and stay the night anyway."

Schnee shuffled impatiently, nervously. "As this is directly my fault, I would like to make it up to you."

Blake tried to argue, but lost. So Blake gave Weiss a list of foods she couldn't eat and Schnee promised better sandwiches.

* * *

Next day, Blake tried asking Yang about her partner's mother.

Yang dodged information at first; looked sad. Said her mother walked out on her; didn't call or visit or anything. Yang gave up on trying to find her. Could be dead for all Yang cared. Sometimes Yang looked like was about to cry. Made awkward jokes.

Blake grew a little uncomfortable; Yang shared a lot of personal information, Blake just wanted to know if Mother Xiao-Long was Faunus.

To balance personal sharing, Blake revealed her parents were dead; she was adopted. Yang apologized for considering being adopted an insult, last few nights; Blake had forgotten about that; accepted apology though.

But, eventually Yang revealed her mother's name:

Raven Branwen.

 _Raven._

Not conclusive, but Blake knew that many Faunus were unimaginative with children's names.

* * *

So followup; today, Blake was alone in dorm room. Made sure blinds closed, door locked again. Ruby was 'studying' with Mz. Goodwitch. Yang was punching sandbags in training room. Schnee had just left for business center and then gym afterwards.

Faunus smelled different, yes, but only in part due to genetics. Fox; likely lying about determining percentage of Faunus ancestry from merely smell. Maybe knew Yang's mother, only said he knew from smell?

Opened closet; team laundry baskets.

Well, now Ruby and Yang did so separately: two baskets, Yang's fuller than Ruby's: weird: Yang wore skimpier clothes than her sister; smaller mass of laundry. Was she changing clothes more often? Or just not doing laundry anymore?

Smelled old; hard to tell though, from here. Blake approached Yang's basket.

Was Yang really part Faunus? Awkward to sniff teammate. Couldn't find picture of Yang's parents. Ruby had picture of Mom (or, Blake figured, someone who was most likely Mom Rose; short woman with reddish hair, silver eyes, sad expression {depression was genetic}; seemed related to Ruby. Unlikely to be Faunus: remembered Ruby and Yang had different mothers).

(Also; found Schnee's weird erotic graphic novels, heheh.)

But clothes; smell could determine Yang's genetics, maybe. Dug through short pants, denim jackets, scarves, gloves. Charcoal and Gunpowder, mostly, some salt. One old shirt; smelled like Faunus, but had pink hair; rubbed off from different girl, Blake concluded. One of Yang's flings.

Blake picked up a sports bra. Huge sports bra. Not jealous; too huge just gets in the way.

Schnee was jealous, though; could tell by way Schnee glanced between Yang's breasts and her own and sighed, occasionally. Heheheh.

Sniffed Yang's bra. Charcoal, gunpowder, sweat, … less sex; perhaps Yang hadn't gone out to clubs recently.

Worrying? Maybe mention to Pyrrha; Yang hadn't been going into town, partying, snogging girls lately. Change in typical behavior; possible cause for concern?

Blake sniffed more. Definitely some Faunus scent. Maybe. Assumed was just girls she'd slept with; maybe Yang had Faunus fetish? Prospect uncomfortable; would investigate further.

Blake returned Yang's laundry basket to its previous condition. Findings: inconclusive.

Was Ruby also part Faunus? Smelled as if part sugar; like she just got back from the Chocolate Factory as one of the bad kids; fell into experiment and now twenty percent sugar at molecular level. Heheh. Would have to use that one in public, sometime.

Sniffed Ruby's shirt. Smelled like sugar; also peppermint, chalk, old parchment, peaches, used Dust, ozone: Mz. Goodwitch. Blake smiled: good for Ruby. No sweat or lipstick though; still a ways to go for team leader. You can do it, Ruby.

But no determination of Faunus blood. Might have to try something that contacted more skin? Blake rummaged.

And then the door tried to open. WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING-

Jumped up; not enough time to jump out of closet.

-whiny voice. Blake sighed, internally; Schnee didn't do swordfighting today because of her arm. Blake knew that, but had forgotten.

Door opened. Then closet door opened all the way. "Did someone leave the closet ope-"

Schnee stared at Blake. Blake blinked twice.

Blake was aware she was holding Ruby's underwear.

"What are you doing?" Schnee said.

 _"Nothing,"_ Blake said; dropped bra, rocked on heels, "None of your business. Go away."

Confused look on Schnee: infuriating. "Are you... digging through our underwear?"

Face burned. "No. Yes. I was looking for change in people's pockets."

"The pockets of Ruby's bras?"

"... Yes."

"I think she only keeps candy in there," Schnee said. "And you know you could just ask me for money."

I GET IT YOU'RE RICH.

"That'd be too awkward," Blake grumbled to the wall.

"More awkward than going through my underwear?"

"I wasn't going through _your_ underwear."

Schneed looked slightly disappointed at that; infuriating.

"I don't like you," Blake reassured.

"Well, am I allowed to-" Weiss cleared throat, "To try to help you out, despite your feelings on me, personally?"

Schnee pulled out wallet; held out some money. "Here. If you've got gambling debts or something, then it wouldn't do to have my teammate's legs broken when we need to fight Grimm or something."

"Gambling debts would be a lot larger than fifty Lien."

Weiss pulled out a card. "So what, like five thousand?"

FIVE THOUSAND? HOW DOES SCHNEE HAVE- Whatever.

"I was speaking hypothetically." Blake growled.

"So take the fifty."

"I don't need your charity,"

"Take the fifty and I won't tell Ruby you were going through her underwear."

Blake scrunched her face. "Fine."

* * *

-[]-

* * *

"So why," Ozpin mused, "do we send children to fight the Grimm?"

"Because, secretly, we're the bad guys?" Port mused back.

Glynda almost laughed. Oobleck didn't.

It was another evening in Ozpin's office- in Ozpin's cluttered, 'trying too hard to be mysterious and portending' office- and the headmaster had brought professors Port and Oobleck in on their little sessions for tea and philosophical pontifications. There was a chessboard set up; Ozpin and Oobleck had ran a speed round while they waited for Port to get here, but nobody was interested after they had poured the first rounds of alcohol. There was a glowing skull- one of the real mystic artifacts that Ozpin had lying around, something they'd recovered back when they hunted the creatures of Grimm from the corpse of a hunter who'd protected the land before even they had; if either of the younger professors asked about it, or if they didn't ask about anything, Ozpin had a story to fill the time. And there was also a television, in case they wanted more mundane small talk. Both were largely ignored.

Glynda swirled her wine glass idly and wondered if her presence here was actually necessary. It probably was, if only to show support, to show her involvement with these things, but right now she didn't have much to do.

"Because if children die fighting Grimm and their souls become corrupted into Grimm they will be less powerful than Grimm born from the tortured souls of experienced hunters" mused Oobleck.

"There's a lot of evidence that contradicts that particular theory of Grimm genesis," Ozpin said.

Glynda refrained from jumping into the dicussion. Discussing the competing theories of where and from which their eternal enemies spawned could take hours, and they had brought the two younger professors here for a particular reason.

Glynda was leaving most of the spheel to Ozpin- he was continuing now.

"I believe," Ozpin said, "It is because the Grimm are weaker when they reflect the fear in children. Or that because they are more blind to the less powerful fear in children. Or because they have less fear to feed from. Regardless of which theory is correct, it appears that Grimm are drawn to fear, and children have less to fear and that is because our fears are born from experience and our worst experiences can only grow darker as we age."

"Actually It appears fear is a one generation inherited trait" Oobleck sputtered. He took a sip from his coffee. "There have been studies that have determined the children of concentration camp survivors grow up to have the same nightmares even if they themselves were born years later Something to do with prenatal development" Oobleck took another sip from his coffee.

"You could say that Fear is a mother's first gift" Oobleck summarized.

Ozpin's eyes widened just slightly. Glynda couldn't tell if he was actually surprised and only barely failed to hide it or if he was trying to look like he had barely contained his surprise and was just pretending to be surprised at all. She was glad that they were close enough friends that he didn't resort to layered deceptions when they were alone, because having to deal with that would get exhausting quite quickly.

But Oobleck had picked up a reputation for reading and decieving people, during the shadow war. It was possible that there were, say, three or four or six layers of deception going on here, and she with her trusting nature and straightforward mindset was only able to see the first two or so.

The reason for this whole presentation of a charade of a gaff of a performance was because Ozpin could pretend everything was on the up and up, and hope that Oobleck and Port thought so too, but your body does many subconscious, physiological things when you lie, and it can be a challenge to hide them all, and if the other party was suspicious in the first place (like, if they were called for a completely innocuous night of tea and chess and philosophy, for example), they would be looking for some sort of deception, and might even find a false positive even if you did have perfect control over all your reactions.

So the alternative was that Ozpin could _pretend_ that he was hiding something minor, like a fear that the current crop of students was inadequate- something that one could understand why he kept hidden, and would see within which there was no malice- so that if anyone tried to spot the true deception, they would simply follow a false trail.

Maybe. Glynda's inability to peel back the layers of deception also extended to her ability to explain it.

"So what would that imply about the Grimm, then?" Ozpin asked.

Oobleck shrugged theatrically. "I don't know Perhaps they are a mother's first failure"

"Or perhaps they are similar to that thing mother birds do," Port said, "When they push their babies from the nest to teach them to fly. The shadows born from womb-fear to violently spur humanity out of the cradle."

"But what of the fact that the worst Grimm come from atrocities wrought by human and Faunus?"

"Perhaps humanity is its own mother, then?"

Glynda stared into her tea for just a moment. When she said she wasn't as cut out for the shadow war as Ozpin, it wasn't just because she didn't have the patience to put six layers of lies on everything she said. Rather, it was because a war of hunter against hunter brought with it a destruction of trust and security and faith, where the greatest horror wasn't being annihilated by unknowable eldritch monstrosities, but coming face to face with the depths to which fellow huntresses would fall in order to accomplish their goals: the arms race of amorality. Gaze into the abyss and mankind is the real monster, etc. Like those concentration camps, for example; Glynda had taken a long time to parse that those first attempts to exterminate whole populations were done out of some kind of normal human emotion twisted into fanatical madness.

And the Grimm that such camps spawned from - or were drawn to or whatever, depending on which theory of Grimm Genisis one subscribed to- they could level entire cities. Once that became known, then some mass executions simply became blood rituals meant to bring upon micro-apocalypses upon civilian population centers. Glynda took a lot longer to parse that it only took a cold dedication to an end to commit such acts beyond redemption. Preventing those rituals from taking place was a difficult job, but killing the Gojira-class Grimm was a straightforward problem, so Glynda had volunteered for the latter.

"Regardless of the reason why," Ozpin said, "It seems Grimm aren't quite as effective when fighting children. Whether it be fear-blindness or fear starvation or less fear reflection."

"You say that children have less fear?" said Port, "That we grow more fearful as we grow older?"

"I would say that adults have more courage to face their fears," Ozpin said, "I've seen hunters both adult and child confront the forces of darkness, and the adults were to be lauded for they knew the depths of the danger and faced it still."

"I agree Courage and Stupidity may oft be confused for one another"

"But on the other hand," Ozpin said, "Children are, by the same virtue, less adept at dealing with the kind of threats adults would be able to handle." He took a long sip of his tea.

Glynda mirrored him, to try to mask any sort of nervousness that might show.

"What do you mean?" Port asked.

Ozpin pontificated, "The knife behind a smile, the traitor by your side, the temptation of darkness."

"Oh. You mean the spies and turncoats."

"Lets not mince words You mean Evil Hunters and Huntresses"

"Precisely," Ozpin said. "So wouldn't you say that, as the children fend off the terrible beasts stampeding upon the horizon, that we- the adults- have a duty to fight the treacherous shadows lurking in plain sight?"

Glynda held her breath.

Oobleck took a quick sip of his coffee. "I agree with that statement" Oobleck said.

"I as well," Port said.

Glynda exhaled and didn't let the relief show on her face. Port and Oobleck had passed.

"So what fears do we have that are so unconquerable?" Port asked, "What dragons do we send the children to fight while we weed out the snakes in the yard?"

Glynda placed her tea down and leaned forward, "Fears from experience, I would think," she said, "Pain gained from long lives, and longer memories."

"Oh? Like what?" Port asked.

Ah- small talk was key to upholding a vernier of normalcy here, and Glynda would gladly do her part.

"I," Glynda picked up her cup again and gazed into its depths, "Am afraid that I'm unable to form close relationships anymore."

Ahahaha, yeah, that was the deep one, wasn't it? Just gonna jump right in? Maybe she could deflect the conversation to someone else's fears or something-

"Oh." Port said.

"I thought for sure it'd be heights Gravity's revenge for defiance and all"

"I wonder if there's a Grimm for fear of commitment." Port mused.

"It's not," Glynda frowned and waved the air, "Commitment issues per say. I've been in a long-term relationship-"

"And she means looooong term relationship," Ozpin smirked.

Glynda shot him a brief glare (and an embarrassing part of her considered flipping him off, without looking. It would have been pretty funny to her, but Port and Oobleck might not think so). "And while it didn't work out, I don't dread the prospect of another one. Quite the opposite in fact."

"So it's not that you're afraid to get burned again." Port said.

"Burns heal," Glynda said, picking her tea up with both hands, "But I'd have to start a new fire before that happens."

"And you're afraid you'll never find another spark to start one."

"Or that I see a spark and I inadvertently stamp it out, despite the desire to see it blossom into a hearth."

"For fear of being burned"

"No, Oobleck," Glynda scrunched her face to the side, "I am quite confident that I am not adverse to a long-term intimate relationship."

"And yet you avoid seeking one out I wonder why that would be if what you say is true"

"So maybe you think that, deep down, that sort of of slow burning fire won't warm you in the way you wish," Port poured more brandy into his mug.

"This metaphor is getting _extremely_ overextended," Glynda said.

"And delightfully mixed!" Ozpin exclaimed.

"There are a lot of other relationship models Perhaps you might try one more based off of lets say physical compatibility See if it suits you better or if you later feel up for a traditional one"

"Oh no, she's tried those too," Ozpin said. He leaned back in his chair and then kicked his legs to bring his torso forward.

Glynda resisted the urge to blush. Instead, she shot a glare at her old friend. "And Ozpin once pretended to be married to a corpse for an entire month."

"You mean, that you were a widower?"

"No- we all pretended the corpse was alive," Ozpin's grin grew wider. "It was for a mission."

Port seemed to be smiling quizzically, behind his cup.

"I don't remember ever reading about that" Oobleck said.

"Whats the fun of consigning all of our adventures to the history books?" Ozpin rocked on his chair. "Surely we can keep a few of the finer points to ourselves?"

"As the history teacher, I feel personally offended," Port began.

And luckily, that was enough to derail the conversation away from Glynda's love life.


	9. Drama Hurricane

I guarantee no expertise in literacy, romance, depression, psychology,

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

Ruby yawned and woke up. She lay in bed, though. She heard Weiss wake up for her morning routine. She never heard Blake get out of bed or pack her books or even close the door, but at some point she cracked an eye and looked to where Blake's bed was and saw that it wasn't occupied. Ruby was alone now, because more often then not Yang spent the night somewhere else- maybe at-

Well, Ruby didn't' even care what Yang was up to. But Yang wasn't here right now.

Ruby eyed the clock- she was a little late, yeah, but she still had time. She could make it if she just got up. Like got up right now.

She forced herself to sit up in her bed.

She forced a smile. Today was another new day. Another chance to become who she always wanted to be. She threw off her pajama shirt and her pajama pants and pulled on her stockings and skirt and finished lacing up her left boot and-

And then her enthusiasm faded. Why would it do that?

Maybe the better question was, why did she have any enthusiasm in the first place? It's not like she earned any.

Ruby tried to psych herself up again- she'd just thought about how she was going to be better, right? How she was going to be a better person, and be on time, and then get all her work done and finally be the person she wanted to be- but it didn't work. It didn't work this time, though it didn't work a lot of times.

What was she doing?

She couldn't even get excited-

She opened her scroll to find the list of things that made her feel happy she was tallying.

Oh yeah, she hadn't actually started on that.

Maybe she could start now?

She couldn't think of anything.

So Ruby leaned back in her bed.

She breathed in, and breathed out, and pulled the covers over herself.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Weiss stomped back to her dorm room. Every day was yet another disaster. Like her life at some point had become a train wreck in slow motion; the engine had hit a penny and careened into a urban housing annex, and every couple of days another one of the connected cars followed the leader down into a crowded wooden hovel, spewing timber and mortar and lead-based paint and lower-income families into a churning vortex of, hmmm, maybe despair? That didn't sound quite right. Weiss would work on the metaphor a bit.

But the point was, Ruby was obviously still broken up about Yang, even if her fearless leader was too reluctant to admit as much. And Yang was suffering for it.

And don't even get her started on Blake, who had some sort of money problem now? That was understandable, but was Weiss just supposed to ignore that? Money problems were probably the only problem Weiss felt confident she could help with.

And on top of things, Weiss had forgotten her textbook and would be late to breakfast.

Whatever. The point was, life was terrible. Well, it felt terrible, which was just as bad. At least Ruby was talking to a councilor. Someone with counseling experience. Someone who thought they might make a good counselor. Hmmm.

And, right now, Ruby especially thought that, since she was still in bed when Weiss got back to their dorm.

Weiss tentatively walked up to where her team leader was curled in her blankets.

"Hey," Weiss said. Maybe a bit too harshly. She cleared her throat.

"He~ey," Weiss soothed, trying to remember the last time someone had said something gentle at her. She suspected, with no small amount of dismay, that it might have been Velvet, sarcastically, at lunch a few days ago.

"Go away, Weiss," Ruby mumbled.

Weiss pulled the covers off her team leader. One of these days she was going to try to help and it wasn't going to backfire horribly-

Ruby didn't have a shirt on- whatever. Weiss averted her eyes-

Right to the underside of Ruby's right forearm. Well, not at first and not intentionally, but there was something that made her look-

Weiss probably stared a bit too long, she would be willing to admit.

Ruby pulled her arm back and gathered up her covers.

And Weiss apologized and backed out of the room and resisted the urge to mutter 'stupid' over and over under her breath.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Blake walked through halls.

"Blake!" Weiss called to her, behind her.

Blake sighed; RIP, potential good day.

Blake turned to Schnee; swatted air. "Go away, Weiss-"

"This isn't even about me! Or you. Or, uh," Weiss looked at the ground. "Us."

Blake tilted her head to the side.

"It's about Ruby."

"... what about Ruby?"

"She- she's having personal issues," Weiss said.

"...how so?"

"I- can't you just help her? You know I'm not good at this sort of thing-"

"You could say that again."

Weiss frowned. "Hey-", then she shrugged, "Actually, you know what? Whatever. I'm not important at this juncture. "

Blake said nothing, partially out of surprise.

"Blake, please," Weiss said, tried to plead, "I mean, what if Yang asked you to do this?"

Blake sighed. "Fine." But inwardly, Blake stifled panic-

Ruby was having... personal issues? Like, feminine problems? Oh Dust oh Dust was that code for human female anatomy problems, wasn't it? Blake hadn't actually brushed up completely on those details- she remembered being tipped that female humans synced up their periods after living together, so when they acted weird she was supposed to act weird, except all of them were reasonably private so that was some acting Blake had never done-

Blake just needed a sponge or something, right? Maybe the nurse had some of those pads from the commercials? Blake could run there on a quick detour and pick up some of those and then figure out how to use them on the way to the dorm-

"And-" Weiss said, "I probably shouldn't be telling people this, but she had, like," Schnee gestured to forearm, "Scars? All down in the, you know, in the- in the typical places..."

Blake scrunched her face. "You're right. You probably shouldn't tell people that."

"Y-yeah, but," Schnee said, "I don't want to ignore any warning signs? Is that allright?"

Blake shrugged. Blake was relieved, partly; this was an issue she felt more confident helping out with. No sponge things needed.

* * *

Opened dorm room; morning light; soft, summer air; warm. Also, pancakes at breakfast today, downstairs; yummy. Blake breathed; potential good day. Goal; let Ruby see that too.

"Hey, Ruby," Blake said to the lump in Ruby's bed. She smiled gently; years of acting practice.

Ruby mumbled something from her blanket cocoon.

"C'mon, let's go to class." Blake soothed, patted cocoon.

"I can get up by myself!" Ruby shot.

Blake blinked.

Ruby was still; few moments. "Fine. Fine, you're right. I'm just a useless garbage person who can't even dress herself-"

"Ruby, no," Blake sat down, put hand on Ruby's shoulder. "We all have momentary lapses. Moments of weakness. It doesn't mean we're weak people. Instead, it's an opportunity to pick yourself back up."

"But this isn't just a moment." Ruby said, "This is my whole life. I have so many reasons to be happy and even with them I can't- I can't-"

"That's just your brain trying to sabotage you," Blake said. Patted Ruby. "If you feel sad, you feel sad, and you don't need to justify it. Just let other people help you along when you are."

Ruby said nothing.

Blake patted cocoon more. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Ruby shook her head; cocoon moved in head areas.

"Do you need me to help you with anything?"

More head shakes.

Blake considered asking for confirmation. Instead, Blake weighed gambit in her head. "Well, then maybe you could help me out with something? Only if you want to, of course."

Immediately, Ruby sat up. Cover's fell, revealed red head. "Oh! Yes. Of course, any time." Ruby forced a smile. "What do you need help with?"

Blake blinked to mask glance down Ruby's arms. Ruby's self-harm scars looked old; not recent, not cause for immediate concern.

And when Blake finished blinking, she was making mature eye contact again.

"I'm losing my chess match with Weiss," Blake said, her voice trembling; didn't mean to do that, but nice benefit; method acting. "We're not playing the fast way and she's," Blake grit her teeth, "Actually really good when she has time to think. Probably just looked it up on the net, the sneak."

'Well," Ruby said, "Maybe that's your solution? Going to the net?"

"But that's cheating," Blake seethed.

"Didn't you just say you think Weiss is cheating too?"

Blake looked at the ground and mumbled. "No. I don't actually think that little of her."

"Well," Ruby said, smiled "Maybe you can just try your best, and when you loose, be gracious about it."

Blake nodded, reluctantly.

"How's the chess going with Glynda?" This, however, motivated purely by gossip curiosity.

"Oh! Actually, uh," Ruby said, she brightened up; another degree. "She's teaching me magic. I uh," Ruby rubbed back of head, looked bashful; adorable, "I'm not very good at chess, it turns out, so we stopped doing it. Sorry I'm not much help. "

Blake smiled. Ruby's advice; probably reasonable, More importantly; distracted Ruby from life problems. Blake helped Ruby finish changing and they went down to get pancakes.

And later, next few days, Weiss would win the chess match, and Blake would lose graciously, and neither of them would yell at each other.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Nora was in her team's dorm room, locking all the doors, closing all the blinds. No peeking!

"Hey Blake or Ren or any other sneaky-sneaky hunter?" Nora said to the empty room. That'd trip any sneaky-sneakers up. And if the room was empty, then nobody would hear, and she wouldn't need to be embarrassed.

Shut up, brain! (Nora pondered if her brain was, possibly, named Brian) She just said there was no need to be embarrassed.

Nora didn't hear anyone so she decide the coast was clear.

She walked over to her drawer, her face a little flushed. Ok, probably a lot flushed. Fine, it was burning hot, so it was probably, like, mutant-reindeer-nose red. Honestly, was embarrassing that she had these urges, and she would probably literally figuratively literally die if any of her team knew about this.

So Jaune was probably the one she was least worried about. Maybe Pyrrha (the spartan had some kind of problem with Nora, but Nora wouldn't let it get to her), and definitely Ren though; they'd known each other since literally forever, and they knew most of each others secrets (And Nora would take Ren's secrets to the grave, but if he decided he trusted the rest of their team, then good for him. Not that Nora was holding her breath or anything. Definitely not literally holding her breath, because then she'd be dead; she needed air to oxygenate her heart and stuff), but this one wasn't, like, one of the secrets that bring you closer together. No, this one was just an embarrassing secret. Super embarrassing secret.

Nora opened the bottom drawer of her dressers, and pulled out an old shoebox, hidden under her underwear (so nobody would be suspicious that she told them not to look through it. Clever!).

Out of the box, she pulled out a small humanoid doll, with orange hair and a pink heart motif on its breastplate. She then pulled out another small humanoid doll, with black hair with a streak of the best violet and a lovely green flowing tunic.

Nora shook the green clad doll. "Hey Nora," Nora said in an exaggerated baritone, soft and kind and super-duper cool. "You look like you have something to say."

"Ren," Nora said in her normal voice. She shook the orange-haired doll and cleared her throat.

 _ **"Yes Nora?"**_

"You're the most handsome, most kind, most manly man in the world," Nora said, shaking herself.

Nora shook the box. "Yes you are!" said a chorus of all the other dolls.

 _ **"Oh, thank you,"** _Ren said. He bowed with his little knitted arms.

"And I-" Nora began.

Nora looked at Ren.

"I think-

Nora's face was on fire. Not literally; she wasn't Yang or anything.

"I think I need a hug," Nora said.

 _ **"Oh, of course."**_

They hugged.

"Promise me we'll be together forever," Nora said. She shook the dolls side to side and let herself tear up, just a little. Just a drop, which she wiped away with her pointer finger and flicked off onto the floorboards.

Nora put herself and Ren aside, leaned against the back of the desk, and then she rummaged back through the shoebox. She pulled out a doll with a crimson ponytail and metal armor and one with spiky blonde hair and metal armor. Neither of them had actual metal armor; just finely crocheted ones made from plastic-infused grey thread.

" _ **Oh Jaune,"**_ Pyrrha's doll said, in a regal contralto, _**"You're so nice and kind and Ernest and you secretly appeal to all my secret fetishes! Let's make out!"**_

 _"Oh Pyrrha,"_ Jaune said, in a scratchy-yet-cute tenor, _"I was so dumb to not realize it but I really like you too! I'm sorry for hitting on all those other girls and guys, especially when I did so in front of you; that was super insensitive of me."_

 _ **"Yes it was, but I forgive you."**_

 _"And you have boobs, which is my secret fetish!"_

 _ **"Let's live together happily ever after, forever!"**_ Pyrrha said.

 _"Yaaay! I love you, Pyrrha!"_

 _ **"I love you too, Jaune! I was a fool for suggesting that inter-teammate dating was a bad idea! I will apologize to Nora about it and our eternal love will be proof of my earlier folly!"**_

They made out. "Mwa mwa mwa!" Nora said in her normal voice.

Nora put the rest of her team aside and turned back to the shoebox. Out of it, she pulled a small knitted doll with white hair, a white dress, and a scar across its left eye. She also pulled out a slightly larger doll with black hair and cat ears and a white, slightly-revealing outfit.

 _"Oh Blake!"_ Nora said in a theatrical, high-pitched whiny voice. She bobbed the white haired doll, _"I'm so sorry I've been a dumb racist butt who can't admit or display affection. But my love for you has made me reconsider all my terrible social views, and you appeal to all my secret fetishes. Can you forgive me and then we can make out in the face?"_

 **"Oh Weiss!"** Nora said in a theatrical, low, sultry voice. She bobbed the black-haired doll. **"I'm sorry I'm an angry malcontent who can't admit or display affection feelings either! But you have made me want to stay and you appeal to all my secret fetishes. I accept your offer to make out in the face-holes."**

And they did, for a long time, Blake pinning Weiss to the desk. Nora at one point realized it and suddenly became super-embarrassed. She put them aside and took a drink from her water bottle.

After she wiped her mouth on her wrist (did that seem more sanitary than wiping it on a sleeve? Well, at least she didn't have to wash anything now.), she pulled out another doll; this one with a wild mop of yellow lint for hair.

Nora's doll hopped up to Yang's doll.

"Hey Yang, you look happy and totally not depressed anymore!"

"Yeah," Yang's doll said, in a smiley bubble voice. She scratched behind her head with round fingerless hands, "I found some random girl who you've never met so you don't have a doll for her but she's nice and fun and appeals to all my secret fetishes, so now I'm happy forever."

"Wooo!" Nora said, throwing the dolls in the air. She caught them.

And then Nora pulled out a super-goth doll with bags under her eyes, wearing a red funerary cloak and undertaker crosses. It had actual rose petals (laminated, to withstand decay up to ragnarok) incorporated into its garb and actual cookie crumbs (not laminated, because they had enough preservatives in them already to withstand ragnarok {They'd need to eat something after the end of days, and the cookie companies knew it) on its shirt.

 _ **"Hey sis,"**_ Ruby's doll said, in a voice like Grimmdust and teen poetry, _**"I'm sorry for being such a butt and hating on you. I'd love to be your sister again."**_

"Hey sis," Yang's doll said, "I'm sorry for being a narcissist or whatever personality flaw makes us not get along. I approve of all your choices and respect your independence as a woman. Let's be sisters again."

They hugged, literally squeezing the stuffing out of each other.

After Nora patched Ruby up, she pulled out a newer doll- Nora hadn't realized she'd have to make this particular one until recently. Some of the seams were less touched up, and the cloak wasn't done, and the right third of the flaxen hair wasn't stitched in yet. And she didn't have the right doll glasses so she just used some librarian ones from the discount bin.

 ** _"Oh Glynda,"_** the cookie covered one said, **_"I just turned eighteen and took enough antidepressants to kill a Goliath, thus solving all my psychological issues forever. Also, my mom's been resurrected, so I don't need you to fill any creepy maternal role for me, and I no longer seek validation from any older woman figure."_**

 _"Oh Ruby,"_ the one in glasses said, in a sultry mature voice, _"Now that you're of legal age I can admit how attracted I am to you! Additionally, all of my psychological issues have also magically been resolved."_

They smooched in the face-holes. "Mwa, mwa, mwa!"

 _"So now that you're 18, will you be continuing your magic education?"_

 ** _"Of course! You've inspired me so much, Glynda, because I love you!"_**

 _"But now that you're a grad student under me we can't be in a relationship together because that's against the school rules-"_

 ** _"I meant- I'm attending a different academy, so there's nothing stopping us from having a sordid romance"_**

 _"But now we're apart-_

 ** _"Or maybe I didn't continue my education-"_**

 _"So you're just deadbeat? Oh no-"_

 ** _"No I'm a famous, successful huntress-"_**

 _"But now you're away all the time so we're not together-"_

"ARRRRGGH!" Nora yelled. She threw the dolls on her bed, but it was okay; she'd confirmed they didn't act like voodoo dolls (probably).

Nora took a few breaths and calmed down. She retrieved the dolls. "Let's try that again."

She bobbed the rose/cookie doll. **_"Glynda! You're so smart and beautiful! I love you!"_**

She bobbed the 2/3rd hairstyle librarian doll. **_"Oh Ruby! You're so cute and strong and loyal! I love you too! Let's get married at once!"_**

"Yaaay!"

Ruby hopped over to the Yang Doll. **_"Yang, I'm sorry I've been such a butt about how you feel about me and Glynda's relationship."_**

"I forgive you Ruby. I'm sorry I tried to break you two up."

 ** _"Do you want to be my maid of honor?"_**

"Du-hoy! Thanks for asking me, Ruby!"

 ** _"Of course! I love you, Yang!"_**

Ruby hopped over to the Nora doll. **_"Hello Nora, you're so cool and strong and every party you throw is a transcendent glimpse of eternal bliss and I'm so, so sorry for being a CRAZY FUCKING BITCH and making you BLOW UP YOUR BEST FRIEND. Will you pretty please be a flower girl at my wedding?"_**

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" Nora squeeed. She kicked her feet in her chair. "OH MY GOSH YESSS! But only if you apologize to Ren and make him be the ringbear."

 ** _"Of course! We shall procure the finest bear onesie!"_**

"Yaaaaay!"

Nora began setting up the wedding, humming the appropriate music.

And then someone tried to open the door.

Nora jumped out of her chair and slammed her shoulder against a door whose lock had just started jiggling.

"Is someone in there?" Pyrrha's voice said from the outside.

"Pyrrha go away!" Nora said, "I'm having Nora time!"

"Oh! Oh. Yes." Pyrrha's voice made a voice-clearing sound. Presumably, Pyrrha made awkward gestures. "I'm sorry. Of course. I will go do, uh, something else, for just a bit. Sorry."

Nora slid down the door and exhaled in relief. Then she packed all the dolls back in the shoebox and buried it in her underwear in her bottom drawer.

"Sorry," she whispered to the box, "Wedding's going to have to wait for another time."

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Jaune walked into the cafeteria, trying on his usual feigned swagger. He brought with him his own lunch- recently microwaved- and also a deep burden (which had never been microwaved at all). A burden that hung over him like a- a burdensome thing. Hmm- a ballast! That was it.

His own team- the team he was the leader of, who'd have ever thunk, huh?- wasn't around, anywhere he could see.

But he wasn't looking for his team. No. Today, he was looking for solace. Solace in solitude. Like a- a wolf? Hmmmm.

He breathed in. And then the breathed out.

And he went up to the only other person in the cafeteria he recognized.

'Hey Blake," Jaune said, "Can I sit with you today?" he said

Blake's eyes became perfect circles with dots for pupils and she looked both ways around. "I guess," she said, "Though I sit with other people and you'll have to ask them once they get here.

"That's alright" Jaune said, "First rule of surviving the pecking order; know your place. I'll leave once they get here, if they ask. I just wanted to take care of one quick thing."

"So what's, uh," Blake said, "What's up?

"Oh!" Jaune put a wrist on his brow and leaned backwards, "It's awful! My whole team is some sort of drama hurricane." Heh, that was a good metaphor; he was glad he thought of it.

Blake's mouth narrowed only slightly. She blinked once.

"And I thought that perhaps I should consult you, since your team is also a drama hurricane."

"What?" Blake stilted, "No~. My team is all great. Great great great."

Jaune bit into one of his chicken nuggets. "I just thought I might try to get some advice, and maybe just vent a little."

Blake looked to the side. She was stiff. "When I need to get away," she said, conspiring like a conspirator, "There's this vending machine on the southern third floor hallway that has just enough space behind it to sleep in."

Jaune gave the appearance of thinking about it. Sleeping behind vending machines didn't quite seem like his style, but he was glad Blake trusted him enough to offer her advice. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"So," Blake was still stiff, and she looked to the side again. She leaned in. "You said you wanted to vent about it?"

"So what happened was," Jaune said, between bites and performances of his chicken nuggets, "Pyrrha doesn't think Nora takes anything seriously, and that includes how she feels about how Pyrrha thinks Nora doesn't take anything seriously. Like, Pyrrha asked Nora about it, and Nora just pulled a balloon animal out from Pyrrha's ear (which was really cool, by the way), and ran off. And then Ren took Nora's side, because of course he did, which means I have to take Pyrrha's side even though I think both of them have points, because if I don't then Pyrrha will be all alone, and I know how much that sucks."

"And I really want to ask Nora how to make balloon animals, but I can't until she and Pyrrha stop fighting."

Jaune gasped for breath, like a fish or something, right afterward, but, like, in a cool way. A cool fish, like a shark. Hmmmm.

Blake had, during the rant, peeled her fish-sticks into proto-amphibians which were exploring his ketchup lava-lake and the volcano he had carved out of his mashed potatoes.

"Hey Blake," said an upperclasswoman who was leading around an upperclassman. The guy had plain white eyes, which probably meant he was blind. Jaune'd heard of that; that some hunters were skilled enough to channel their Auras through the ground to sense vibrations, or maybe just click with their mouths to echo-locate.

"Hey Coco," Blake said, "Jaune here was just-"

"Are those dinosaur chicken nuggets?" Coco said.

"uhh," Jaune said to his dinosaur chicken nuggets. "Yes. Yes they are." No sense denying it, really.

'Hey Fox, he has-

"I was right here, Coco," Fox said.

Jaune braced for the other shoe to drop-

"Can we have some?" Coco said

Jaune was not expecting that sort of shoe.

"Uhh," he said. Well, you didn't offer your entire lunch if someone asked, because that made you look desperate. "You can have no more than half," Jaune said; that was his solution.

And he could ask to trade lunch. Fox had-

Blueberries and fish. Uhhh, maybe not.

Coco had yogurt, whey protein and also some blueberries.

"And maybe I could trade for some blueberries?" Jaune said. Why did every upperclass student he meet have a weird diet? Like that Faunus lady who ate exclusively lettuce. Or maybe that was just a Faunus thing? But there was also this buff upperclassman who had somehow gotten buff on a bowl of rice and, like, the energy of the universe or something. Hmmm.

And oh, speaking of them, he hadn't realized they were the other half of Coco's team.

"What's up, Thayli?" said the lettuce-eating Faunus lady (oh dang, was that racially insensitive- the lettuce thing?) "Haven't seen you around here. Are you a friend of Bla- are those dinosaur chicken nuggets?"

"Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets," said the buff guy.

"Y-yeah," Jaune said.

"Hey Hombaroo-"

"I was here before you, cottontail." Fox said. He was currently nibbling the skin off a tyrannosaur nugget.

Velvet stuck her tongue out at Fox and made an 'nyeh' sound.

"And Blake, did you poke eyes and gills into your fishsticks-"

Blake stuffed her breaded fish-meat mash into her mouth. "Mogh~," she said through full mouth.

And then later Weiss showed up. Weiss was pretty cool; she was pretty and confident and that was something he admired.

Jaune tried to flirt with her, but it didn't go over so well.

"Why are you even here, scraggly boy?" Weiss said confidently.

"Well," Jaune said. He glanced between the new arrivals. "I guess my team's fighting a little. Trying to get a handle on it."

"Aw man, inter-team fighting?" Velvet said

"That happens." Yatsuhashi said.

"They'll kiss and make up soon enough."

Weiss looked horrified. "What? No~."

"Hey," Velvet said, "Obviously we're proponents of inter-team dating. I think all hunting teams become incestuous messes eventually."

"Especially our team," Coco added.

"Yeah, we were literally the most incestuous team last year."

"It was horrifying."

"Hooking up behind each other's backs, trying not to let the other half of our team figure it out-"

"Ill advised threesomes and trying not to let the fourth person

"And cra~zy make-up orgies-"

"I thought we agreed never to speak of that-"

"Point was," Velvet said as she waved her hands, "It was a lot of drama, and yeah, it sucked. We know how you feel, Jaune and Blake and Weiss."

"Yeah, and we can tell you-"

"That it'll blow over. Eventually. Probably with sloppy make-outs in a janitorial closet."

"But Ruby and Yang are sisters," Weiss stated. Her typical confidence looked like it was taking a hit- dang.

There was an extended blinking session from three-fourths of CFVY.

"Really?" Fox said.

"They look nothing alike," Coco said.

"They act nothing alike," Yatsuhashi said.

"Adoption's cool though. I support it fully." Velvet said. "Because you know what happens with siblings who aren't biologically related, right?"

"They're Half-sisters," Blake explained.

"Yeah, they actually are biologically related, so you can stop talking about them making out."

"Oh Weiss-y," Velvet said as she rubbed Weiss's head. "That has never been an issue."

Weiss dropped her fork and made a disgusted face. "They are sisters!"

"Which means they've known each other literally forever. Who better to fall in love with, then-"

"You only think that because you don't have any siblings." Weiss protested.

Velvet smirked. "I'm actually the oldest of 276 children in my clutch."

"Wait," Jaune said, "Really?"

"- You- There's a psychological process that prevents incest." Weiss was in shambles now, like a shambly ...shrubbery? Hmmm.

"Daww," Fox said, "It's cute you think that."

"And it works less often on adopted siblings," Blake added.

Weiss clutched her head and ducked. "-no no no no nono nono no no noononononoononnoo-"

"So Yang's a bit older than Ruby. She'd probably play the mentor role in the relationship- there's this old word for it I think-"

"-nooooooooooooooooo-"

Jaune cleared his throat. "As someone with seven sisters I can't say I've ever seen the incest appeal."

Weiss paused her torment to look at Jaune, "You have seven sisters? Hot damn."

"Hehe, Weiss is jeal~ous! She wants in on all this sister action."

Weiss emitted some sort of high-pitched alarm noise.

Jaune cleared his throat. "I've actually got pretty good and strictly platonic relationships with my whole family, so this conversation's kind of weird-"

"Aw," Velvet said dissapointedly. She then turned to Weiss. "So Yang's knockers are huuuge. I wonder if when she was young Ruby ever got to-"

"NOPE." Weiss reached over into Blake's personal space. Blake grabbed Weiss's hands, and they had a little kerfuffle that ended with Blake's hands on Weiss's face and Weiss's hands in Blake's pockets.

"Borrowing a smoke bomb," Weiss said, as she rummaged a bit. It looked kind of awkward. "I'll pay you back-"

"You don't know how to use tha-"

And then at least three smoke bombs went off, and then the fire alarm went off, and they had to evacuate. And, coughing in the aftermath, Jaune's dreams of hanging out with cool upperclassmen shriveled up like- some sort of shrivel thing; day old chicken-nuggets, maybe. Hmmm. But eh, their advice was sound, so hopefully his team issues would just blow over at some point. He wasn't sure how he felt about making out with his team though.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

The upcoming weekend was the Vytal Sisterhood Bash. It was the last weekend before the weekend before finals.

Ruby had mixed feelings. Yang and her had always went, even when they were too young to compete in the sack race or do any of the activities that involved weapons. So for a couple days, Ruby was expecting some sort of apology from Yang, at which point Ruby would probably concede a couple things even though she didn't want to, and then they'd awkwardly make up and be sisters again and then go to the festival and it'd be the worst experience of Ruby's life but maybe it'd have some silver linings, or maybe they could even put aside all their differences for the day and pretend it was like all the other times they'd gone.

But nothing like that ever came. Yang was actually true to her word and kept her distance and they only occasionally spoke at their sessions with Pyrrha.

And Ruby knew Yang was still upset. Yang didn't do a good job of hiding it. So maybe it'd be good to reconcile for at least a day and enjoy some fried food and carnival games and maybe take one of the Atlus sponsored Turing tests.

And one day, when Ruby got back to their dorm after class, she caught Weiss packing an overnight bag. Weiss flinched when Ruby walked in and looked a little shifty when Ruby asked about it.

"Oh, uh," Weiss said when she ran out of evasion. She stuttered when she spoke and looked everywhere except Ruby, "Yang invited me to the Sisterhood Bash down in Vytal, and I'd always wanted to go, but I never actually- well, you know. And, uh," Weiss grinned a grim grin at Ruby, "But if you wanted to go instead I'll totally step back.

Ruby forced a smile. "No no, you go ahead." And her smile grew a little wider and a little more genuine, "Actually, I think this would be good, for - both of you.

Weiss smiled in relief and they had a meaningless conversation until Weiss had something else to do, elsewhere. She thanked Ruby for whatever and grabbed her bag and ducked out.

As soon as the door closed, Blake stepped out of her hiding spot and gave an 'oh hi' wave to Ruby.

Ruby refreshed her smile, but not in time, apparently.

"Are you upset that Yang's taking Weiss?" Blake asked.

"What? Hell no," Ruby said. She crossed her arms. "This is everything I've ever wanted. And even though it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to think it, at least Yang'll be happy."

Blake looked at Ruby. "But you're upset."

Ruby sighed. "Because Yang's stupid! She's going through all this trouble to take somebody else- someone she's not even sisters with (even though the sisterhood picnic allows battle-blood siblings- eh, it'll probably be fine). Doesn't she realize she can have me as a sister if she'd just respect me?" Ruby yelled at nothing in particular, "If she'd just listen to me and stop trying to control who I want to be and stop trying to make me fucking break up with Glynda?"

"You're dating?" Blake said.

"Well," Ruby said, "Not yet." Ruby found her rage again. "And I don't need protecting, Yang! I don't need your stupid incompetent ass looming over me! You don't even know how to protect me, Yang!"

Ruby clenched her fists. "And I don't need dating advice, and I don't need chaperoning- I don't know who you are to me, Yang, but I know you're not my fucking mom, Yang!"

"YOU HEAR ME, YANG? YOU CAN'T REPLACE MY MOM!" Ruby realized was standing up, having knocked her chair back, her fists balled and her eyes wet and blurry and her throat a little hoarse; her voice cracked.

And then she realized Blake was staring at her, wide-eyed and flat-mouthed. Ruby sat down.

"And," Ruby said softer, at a normal voice. She closed her eyes and picked her chair back up, "She had to go an pick Weiss of all people?"

Blake chuckled just a bit at that.

"Well I guess if she just wants to tell someone what to do, Weiss is a good candidate." Ruby's timbre wasn't quite steady. "And who knows, maybe Weiss will learn to be a better person? Yang's not all bad.

Blake shot Ruby a look. "You literally just yelled obscenities at her, to the heavens."

"Well," Ruby bit her lip. Yang was a lot more bearable now that she wasn't here. She relayed that to Blake. She couldn't help mentioning about how her sister was also pushy and nosy and lazy and clueless and a long, long list of other things.

"And this will give me some time alone," Ruby said. She breathed. "Yeah, I can tune up team JNPR's weapons, like I said I would. Did you want me to do Gambol Shroud too?"

Blake shrugged and mumbled an affirmative.


	10. Different Kinds of Conflict

So I'm just gonna load all these things I don't know stuff about into the same chapter. But what are the odds this fic has readers who're experts on philosophy, psychological health, or machining?

A lot, huh? Aha...

I apologize for any inaccuracies and any offense said inaccuracy cause.

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

It was another day. Life improving; new ongoing chess match with Schnee; Blake had looked up some guides on the net and had solid early push. Would wait and see if opening gambit was effective.

Blake adjourned to cafeteria for dinner. Good food today; ground beef taco bar, also with fish. Approached regular lunch/dinner table, regular lunch/dinner friends (and Schnee). Was smiling-

Was smiling until, on the way to the lunch table, intercepted by a girl in sunglasses and a beret and a fox.

"We blame _you_ for this, Blake." Coco stated to her.

"What?"

Coco pointed to their regular table; Weiss, Velvet, Yatsuhashi were arguing; animatedly, passionately.

"Because your little hemorrhoid turned out to be a _floss-officer._ "

Hemorrhoid: heheheh. Because she's a pain in the ass.

But other question; tilted head; avoiding temptation to flatten ears under bow; "Floss-officer?"

"To clean the gunk between your teeth," Coco said.

Silence. Blake titled her head, other side.

"She means Philosopher," Fox offered. Oh. Deliberate mispronunciation, aha (was this clever, or just obtuse?)

"To clean the gunk between your ideas," Coco explained further.

"Is that bad-" Blake began. Then she sat down; heard what Velvet, Yatsu, Schnee were arguing about.

"I'm saying that you can't believe there just _isn't_ an objective reality." Weiss said; hefted an apple. "That's just weird- you can physically touch things, so how can you think that nothing's real?"

"It is true that you can 'feel' reality," Yatsuhashi said, "But that's just a feeling. We feel what the apple represents. We must look inward to peel back the illusion of the world to see the real one."

"That's not 'objective'! That's just as arbitrary as what Velvet thinks!"

"What does Velvet think?" Blake asked. Coco facepalmed.

Velvet smiled. "I posit that reality is a byproduct of external confirmation from a small number of outside agents one has voluntarily relinquished the power of definition to."

Blake blinked.

"Someone you love has to make it real," Velvet explained, more simply.

"I understood what you meant," Blake lied. Would have deduced it, eventually.

"And if she only meant that those who love apples get to define them, then it wouldn't be so bad," Yatsuhashi said, "But she thinks the same of the reality of concepts and identities. You're just putting the responsibility of your own actualization on to someone else." Last part was said to Velvet.

"And you can't just ask anyone else what makes you real," Weiss said, "There is no reason to think that other people have a better grasp on reality than you do. You're just adding another step to Yatsuhashi's outlook." Last part was said to Velvet.

"It's not just anybody," Velvet frowned, "It's gotta be someone you love."

"And that's just-" Weiss choked a bit.

"That's allowing someone to control you because they 'love' you," Blake interjected.

"Or if they actually do love you, then you're letting them be a part of yourself." Velvet said. "We grow through our connections with others."

"So how do you determine what qualifies an person to determine if you're real or not?"

"Uhh, if they _love_ you," Velvet said; maliciously, accusingly, "I literally _just_ explained this." Velvet pontificated. "We are defined by how we present ourselves to others, and how others react to us."

Weiss frowns; gross. "It's a sloppy life philosophy if you're shackling your definition of reality to the definition of love."

"In her defense," Yatsuhashi said, "It has an elegance to it." He picked up piece of fruit, examined it "What if all that's real in this world comes from love?"

"Now you're just failing to defying 'real,'," Weiss said, "I meant 'real' as in 'exist', not as in, 'emotionally meaningful'."

"I understood what you meant," Yatsu said, "And I was using the same definition. What if all that exists come from love? If it is only through love that one can fully understand what realist really represents, rather than what one thinks they feel and see?"

"Uhh," Weiss said, facetiously (Hisssssss), "Then you're living in some crazy world? Reality doesn't care how much or how little you love it, it's still going to, like, exist."

"I disagree," Yatsusu said, "If we try to not just look at what's on the outside," Yatsuhashi peeled layer off fruit, "We could rid our minds of expectations and truly see. Reality does exist, but what we see on the surface isn't its true form; it's sensations interpreted by our mind, by our preconceptions."

Blake recalled sermons from early in life.

"I agree with you, partially," Weiss said, "Except that behind the illusion of the world isn't, like, nirvana or anything, Behind the illusion of the world is the real world. You just need to cut through all the crap- you may only be feeling inputs from your hand nerves or whatever, but there's still, like a physical apple there. The sense of touch evolved because it was a reliable way to develop a mental construct of reality."

"You believe in evolution?" Blake said to Weiss.

Weiss shot dirty look. "Uhh, you _don't?"_

"Dustdammit Blake," Coco rubbed head, "I swear to Frith that if you turn this table into another monkey trial I will end you-"

"No argument necessary," Blake said, between bites, "Faunus exist, and Evolution doesn't permit two apex predators to coexist."

"You could say that Humans and Faunus don't coexist very well. Maybe we'll extinct each other eventually." Velvet smirked.

Blake frowned. "And anyway, where do Grimm come from? Evolution has no answer, so believe it?"

Fox, Velvet, Weiss responded simultaneously.

"Evolution isn't meant to explain where creatures come from-" Fox said.

"Grimm aren't biological entities." Velvet stated.

"There's three popular competing theories about where Grimm come from-" Weiss whined.

"And they all declare Grimm to be at least partially formed from our negative emotions, " Blake said, waved air, "Is it too hard to believe that we may be their warm mirror? That we come from positive emotions?"

Coco started chewing on her beret, staring angrily at Blake. Yatsu looked contemplative. Velvet looked annoyed. Weiss kept good poker face, but was clear she disagreed.

"The Grimm are shadow and We are light, dancing in balance," Blake squinted at Yatsu, "Don't you Walk the Path of Enlightenment? This is in the doctrine."

Yatsu pulled to his necklace; a circle, with Blake and white swirls and dots. Blake's was kept in her back pocket, and she subconsciously patted it.

"I guess we're of different sects," Yatsuhashi said. "I'm pretty sure mine never weighed in about evolution, so I must agree with the science here."

"Hey, speaking of sects-" Coco began. Yatsu held up a palm in front of her.

"Speaking of the nature of reality," Yatsuhashi said to Weiss, "I am glad we both agree that what we perceive as the real world is only a mental illusion of it."

"Ugh, you guys," Velvet said, "The world isn't some augmented reality hologram overlay, it's just the world. All that matters is how you interpret it, and both of you are interpreting it as deeper than it is. Let me show you-"

Velvet picked up an apple. "Can someone tell me what color this apple is?"

Yatushashi's face flattened. "Color is a delusion."

Weiss pulled out her phone, "When hit by a photon of sunlight, the apple will emit a photon that has a wavelength of..." Weiss tapped her scroll some more, "280 nanometers."

 _"Frithrah,"_ Velvet sighed, slumped, coughed once, "Does someone who doesn't know this is a thought experiment care to answer?"

"If we followed your script," Weiss said, "We would come to your conclusions. The experiment is designed to support you, no matter what counterarguments exist. So there's no point, unless we counterpoint with our own ideas."

"I'm saying is," Velvet said, "What if someone thought the apple looked blue, but their whole life they were told it was 'red' so, in their mind, 'blue' is 'red', and it's only social consensus that they agree with other people."

"Behind the apple is the platonic ideal of an apple," Yatsuhashi said, "And anything we see of it is only a pale shadow cast by the true apple. Thus, it does not matter what color it is. If we care to look, we will see the true apple it represents."

"But no matter what you call it," Weiss said, "There is still an objective, quantifiable wavelength of the light that reflects off the apple. You just said you believed in evolution- in quantifiable science- so what's the difference here?"

"Actually," Yatushahsi said, "When conditions are altered such that wavelengths of blue light is reflected off a red apple, people still perceive it as 'red'. The delusion of color overrides whatever wavelength of light is measured."

"Quantitative fallacy!" Weiss said, "So fine, photon wavelength can be manipulated or misinterpreted, that was my bad. I meant that the physical makeup of the apple, the pigments in its skin that cause it to reflect 'red' light upon incipient sunlight, are the same. Just because an effect isn't easily measurable, or the tools we use to measure it aren't accurate, doesn't mean the effect doesn't exist. So just because we think it looks blue, doesn't mean the wavelengths aren't the same."

"And I'm saying that all those tools, all those words you use to describe the apple," Velvet said, "Are still created by sentient beings- by people- so you're just arguing my perspective except with a veneer of 'scientific rigor' on top."

"I am not endorsing your perspective!" Weiss said, "You don't believe in objective reality!"

"On this I have to agree with Weiss," Yatsuhashi said, turned to Velvet "You are rejecting that there is a truth out there to find, in favor of just making one up and putting it there yourself, through someone else."

"I'm not rejecting truth!" Velvet said, "I'm saying is that it is up to us to love something enough to define its truth! There is truth, but it's up to us that define what truth is."

"And you," Weiss said to Yatsuhashi, "Are just arguing what Velvet is! You can't say that there's some 'objective reality' and then declare that we have to look within ourselves to see it- to see our own personal version of it. You're putting your own interpretation of truth in there and Velvet's letting someone else put their interpretation in it. It's the same thing!"

Velvet smirked a fever smirk and mumbled something about putting it in. Coco smirked in approval.

Yatsu ignored her. "I'm just saying that if you're leaving yourself open to interpretation based on the accuracy of your perceptions, then your worldview will always be inconsistent."

"And can't you see how inconsistent that can be?" Velvet said, "You can't let yourself define your truth! You need someone who loves you to define it for you-"

"Eughaughguh," Coco said, "Can we please go back to talking about sex again?"

"I'm still wondering what this has to do with Faunus rights." Weiss said.

Velvet turned to her. "Because I'm arguing that any sort of objective argument we try to give to Weiss won't take, because Weiss still doesn't think equality is real."

"I'm just saying," Weiss said, "What if there are objective ways in which humans and Faunus differ on the sociological level? It'd be dishonest to ignore that-"

"And I am trying to disabuse her of that notion," Yatsuhashi said. Velvet leaned into her boyfriend.

Blake tilted head, "So Velvet, why are you arguing with Yatsuhashi-"

Velvet frowned. "Because I don't think there's any point in trying to help Weiss 'at this juncture.'"

"Excuse you, that's _my_ catchphrase-" Weiss almost interjected.

"Because something is only real if someone you love makes it real," Velvet said, "And the issue of Faunus rights won't ever be real to her until someone she loves makes the ideal of equality more than just statistics to her."

"You're confusing your definitions of 'real'," Weiss said.

"I'm not, actually," Velvet said. "Reality is half a product of our perceptions, just like Yatsu says."

"You think not believing something doesn't make it real? That you can close your eyes and the monsters go away?"

"On a personal level? Pretty much," Velvet said. "I mean, you don't really believe in the poverty in Menagerie, do you? Faunus rights are just not real to you."

"That's- that's not true-," Weiss said. Then more forcefully, "And what, you didn't believe in _anything_ before you met Yatsu? Is that what you're saying?"

"Yes, exactly." Velvet gestured with fork, smiled.

"You can't mean that-" Yatsu said.

"It's true!" Velvet turned to Yatsuhashi, grabbed his hands, stared him in the eyes. "Nothing in my life was real before I met you, Yatsuroo," Velvet said. "I mean it! My whole life."

Yatsuhashi looked to the side, hands were limp in Velvet's. "Velvet, it pains me to hear you say that-"

"I love you, Yatsuroo," Velvet said, voice quiet, her cheeks more flushed than usual. She squeezed hands. "You've made me real, you know that?"

"I-" Yatsuhashi said. He turned away. "I'm not going to let you put the burden of your identity on me."

"Yatsu!" Velvet said, "Didn't you hear- I love you! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Yatsuhashi inhaled. "I know what you think that means-"

Velvet let go of his arm. "And what, you can't respect that? I've given you so much space for your beliefs, Yatsu. You can't even give the barest respect for mine?"

"It's not a healthy way to live, Velvet-"

Velvet leaned back, face aghast. "Oh, and your way is just so much better?"

"Wait," Weiss said, condescendingly, "Weren't you just saying that other people should define your beliefs-"

"Shut up, Schnee," Velvet shot, pointing at Weiss, not even turning to look. Her voice softened when she turned back to her boyfriend. "Yatsu- not everything's about continuous self-improvement," Velvet's voice was pleading. Yatsuhashi shuffled more, in his seat. "I'm right here, right now. I love you! S-so can't you- can't you make me real, Yatsuroo?"

"If you need it in a word," Yatsuhashi whispered, turned head to Velvet, "Then no. I'm sorry, Velvet-"

"I can't believe you!" Velvet yelled, voice cracked, nose twitched, eyes watered. She stood up, grabbed her tray, turned to leave. "I- I just- Don't try to- just- ugh!"

Velvet left.

Clatter faded. Nobody moved, eight seconds.

"Well Dust, do you think it was for real this time?" Fox said.

"What," Coco said, pontificating theatrically, "is 'real', anyway?"

Blake chuckled. Weiss did not. Yatsuhashi didn't even move.

"And just to clarify things, Weiss," Yatsuhashi said, haltingly, "Velvet's philosophy that specific external agents should affect one's belief doesn't apply to the foundation belief."

"Well that's an ad hoc fix if I ever did see one. Why shouldn't that be open to debate if literally everything else is?"

Yatsuhashi didn't respond. Coco started glancing around nervously, tried to tell a sex joke.

Weiss cleared her throat, straightened back. "And- I understand that my presence was the catalyst for your argument, and I a-a-. sigh. I apologize for that." She gulped. "But when someone loves you, and you love them back, just say so! Don't let your minor philosophical differences get in the way of True Love."

"Eh," Blake said, "True love's a wash anyway."

Weiss turned to her, glaring. "How can you say that?!"

Blake blinked. "Uhh, because I wasn't raised in an ivory tower my whole life?"

"You- whatever." Weiss harrumphed, scrunched her mouth, turned back to Yatsu. "But were your philosophical differences really that insurmountable?"

"She's so strong," Yatsuhashi said, to the table, "And not just as a hunter. She's-" He poked his food, didn't finish though. "I'm not going to let her use me as an excuse to hold herself back."

"If it's any consolation," Fox said, "Velvet has told Coco and I at various points in the last few years that we've made different concepts real to her. So the burden of her identity isn't solely on you."

Yatsuhashi didn't respond.

"Well if you're free later tonight-" Fox began.

Yatsuhashi stood up. "I'm going to go meditate." He took his tray and left.

Then; three minutes when all Blake could hear was tentative chewing.

Three.

Excruciating.

Minutes.

Weiss cleared her throat several times, never spoke though.

"So anyway." Coco said again. "Sex."

Weiss coughed. Blake obliged the new conversation topic though.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Pyrrha took an assimilating breath, regarding the soft, artificial dimness from curtains drawn against the afternoon sun. It made her therapy sessions more intimate, she thought; more private, less connected to the outside world (And more confidential maybe; giving the impression that anything they said wouldn't need to leave this room). But on the other hand, since both her patients had some degree of depression and detachment, Pyrrha worried if the dim rays from silhouetted curtains in the quiet morose room just aggravated those negative feelings. Maybe, for a depressed person, bright lights were more important than the impression of privacy.

(And speaking of privacy, Pyrrha had made Nora pinkie-swear that she wouldn't eavesdrop. They hadn't learned any anti-scrying spells- not even a simple Zone of Silence-, so the room wasn't magically warded (though if these sessions continued into the second year- well, that'd mean that Pyrrha had failed, so the point was moot.) but Pyrrha figured their lack of professional privacy measures would be less important than how inconceivable it would be that anyone would want to spy on them (besides Nora and maybe Blake, Pyrrha supposed). And if the school staff had magic probes in every dorm, then well, Pyrrha doubted they'd teach students any magic that would overcome the school wards.)

For whatever reason, Yang and Weiss would be traveling away this weekend even though it was two weeks until finals. Now, she personally was on top of things, but Jaune and Nora were scrambling to finish all their assignments in the next seven days so that they could use next weekend to scramble to study for finals the week after that. So either Yang and Weiss had all their homework under control, or their little outing was more important than grades.

Ren and Nora were on standby- outside the dorm, with instructions not to be anywhere close to the door, not eavesdropping but keeping their eyes on their Scrolls for an alarm, because sigh, if Ruby and Yang tried to attack each other again, it'd be helpful to have half her team as back-up.

Pyrrha shook her head. She didn't have a problem with Nora or anything. Nope. They'd talk about it later, though, but just as, y'know, people who disagreed with each other, occasionally.

"So Ruby," Pyrrha said, "Tell Yang what you told me."

Ruby sat up a little straighter in her chair. She turned to the third member of their session, who was sitting backwards on a chair, resting her chin against the chair's back.

"Yang," Ruby said, "I'm not a kid anymore. I don't want you hovering over me anymore, and I really don't appreciate you trying to control my love life. And I will extend to you the courtesy I want you to give me."

Yang's grimace flickered for a moment.

"So I wanted to tell you, "Ruby breathed, "to have fun at the festival with your new sister."

Yang looked at her expectantly, for eight seconds. Then she frowned, aghast. "That's it?"

Ruby closed her eyes and sat up straight. "Yes."

Yang's face devolved into a teary grimace "I'm just supposed to accept that I've lost my sister?-"

'YOU DROVE ME AWAY-"

"Girls!" Pyrrha said, "Keep calm and use your words, please."

"Ruby," Yang said, "I still- I still want you in my life."

"I don't," Ruby stated. "So please get on with yours."

Yang grit her teeth. She stood up, and Pyrrha reached for her scroll.

"Fine then," Yang spat, though her voice always a little uncertain to sound completely angry, "I'll have fun, this weekend, with someone who's actually willing to forgive. And I hope you have fun with whatever you're doing, Team Leader."

And Yang left.

Pyrrha exhaled. Well, that could have gone better, but maybe giving each other a weekend of physical space from each other would do Ms. Rose and Ms. Xiao-Long some good.

Pyrrha finished up by having Ruby read her her happiness log. At least that was improving, maybe.

* * *

-[]-

* * *

Ruby woke up. It was Saturday, and without needing to go play carnival games and eat fried food this year, Ruby's whole weekend was free. Ruby figured she'd take the opportunity to fix everyone's weapons. Only two weeks late, really; Nora and Ren had focused on history and tactics and hand-to-hand in the meantime. Neither of them even pressured her to get the tune-up done; they were either being really polite, or they still had some residual battle-trauma. Hopefully the former, though. (Ruby idly wondered why she wasn't better friends with Nora- they both liked sweets and {begrudgingly and only occasionally in Ruby's case, she swore} kiddy stuff.)

And it was morning; 8:00 sharp, and Ruby decided to formally wake up. Blake wasn't there, and with Weiss and Yang being gone, nobody would judge her if she rolled out of bed, onto the floor, and just lay there, arms spread eagle and eyes closed and breathing slow, until her will to live caught up with her wakedness.

So she pulled out the happiness journal she was keeping on her scroll and she summed up her personal list of positive things; Weapons, being a huntress, cookies, Glynda, Yang being gone. It cheered her up, which was good because today Ruby felt especially ashamed; she'd planned to spend all day in the weapon forge, and here she was, thirty minutes after her alarm went off, wasting time lying on the ground. But eh, working on her journal helped a bit, to recover her motivation.

One thing that didn't work to cheer her up was thinking about attending Beacon. It'd been a dream of hers, but it had betrayed her; school was still hard, . No offense to Prof. Port- and his hunter stories were always enrapturing, Ruby didn't know why all her classmates seemed to zone out during those but not the material- but she could care less about actually memorizing historical facts. The half of class time that mattered, Ruby had trouble paying attention.

Prof. Oobleck's lectures on weaponry and Dust were also a mixed bag. That was Ruby's element; the stuff she'd worked with and trained with and loved since she was a little girl- but half the material was review, and she ended up zoning out in class, and if she couldn't even get interested in classes about her passion, then did she really deserve to be here- to be attending the most prestigious hunting academy in Remnant?

Aura manifestation was the only class she was doing exceptionally well in, for the obvious reasons. And she didn't even have any spellcasting experience, though she she was particularly attuned to her semblance for her age. And even then, sometimes she'd zone out in class to just look longingly at Glynda-

If this was 'living the dream', then, well, maybe it was a bad dream. A nightmare, even. Her conscious self told her that maybe being a full huntress would be more fulfilling, less full of drudgery and she'd finally be focused and motivated and the things she thought she loved doing would really, really feel worthwhile.

But weaponry was something she already loved (after diving headfirst into the field when she was young, under Qrow's tutelage, and then begrudgingly forcing herself to keep practicing once it had gotten hard, for a few years, until she finally got to the point where she considered herself adequate enough to merit continuing, while still trying to improve as much as she could). The thought, at least, was enough to get her to sit up in her bed and yawn and rub her underarm and contemplate getting dressed.

Ruby was self-taught when it came to machining, which was probably bad; she didn't know best practices or industry standards or anything. But that's what school was for, and while the first semester courses didn't include any on design or machining or anything, she'd been guided by a few mentors (even one here, whom she'd bumped into often enough to be sort of friends with- when she eventually got down to the forge she greeted Ruby with a wave), and by a few books and guides, but Ruby still had a lot to learn, but she'd picked up some stuff, some useful, tried-and-tested lessons.

And the first lesson you learned when you don't know anything is how to replace parts. The foundry at Beacon had a whole library of standard blades, hilts, stocks, barrels, cylinders and the requisite screws and springs and gears, and (-and this was something Ruby'd never had a chance to work with at home), if you wanted to emboss runes into your weapon, a whole array of stencils for the most common runes and glyphs. If Crescent wanted to be more like Myrtenaster, perhaps. Qrow had been more on the nonmagical side of weaponsmithing, but he'd once taken Ruby to a festival in the country to a met a willowed old blind woman who embued fancy curved blades with intricate runes of luminescent Dust- Crocea Mors was one of those, old honest weapons, and Ruby'd seen an upperclassman with a similarly non-mechanical sword.

But today wasn't the time to compare the competing design philosophies; there'd be no redesigns, or alterations or optimizations or attempts at Dust engravings. It would be tune-up, with some replacement parts on Magnhild and maybe Stormflower. But maybe afterwards, maybe Ruby'd give Crescent a new set of clothes. That thought, finally, movtivated Ruby to actually start her day.

Ruby skipped breakfast but grabbed a pack lunch at the cafe and she wandered down to Beacon's foundry. She swiped in and picked up a pair of safety goggles and checked into a workstation, walled off but with clear plastic windows, and inadequately sound-proofed. She breathed in the scent of oil and ozone and metal and listened to the dull mechanical roar of background machinery.

There was a philosophical concept Ruby'd been told of; the ship of Theseus: if she replaced Crescent's blade, and shaft, and bearings and stock and rifle and springs and screws and everything, was Crescent still the same Crescent? Was Crescent defined by parts and materials, or something less tangible? Ruby thought the latter. Crescent was an idea- of which the physical form was only a representation- if Ruby were to look beyond what she saw Cresent as, she would realize that her weapon had maybe some metaphysical form of which the tangible part was only a shadow of not-fully-realized potential. One day the idea of Crescent might manifest in a way that included a spell cylinder, Ruby mused. So Ruby had some new parts for Crescent designed and placed the schematics in the head machinist's inbox, to be ready for use later in the day.

But before Ruby started working on the weapons in her bag, she wandered into the commons area, with all the machines. Then Ruby approached her informal weaponsmiting mentor- an older student, with her hair and ears up and covered in a bandanna and a pair of safety goggles hung around her neck. Her cheeks seemed to be always be flushed and she coughed when she was nervous.

"Yo Rubaroo," Velvet said. She was around in the forge almost (but not quite) as much as Ruby was, though mostly in the electronics wing. But on the first week she'd shown Ruby how to upload schematics to the mill, so Ruby assumed Velvet knew her stuff.

"Hey Velvet," Ruby said, "What's up?"

Velvet blinked to the distance. Here eyes looked a little redder than usual. "Oh, you know. Just contemplating existence." She gestured to the circuit printer. "And I actually took a closer look at my weapon after upgrading it two months ago, " Velvet said. She coughed, just a bit, into her elbow, "And it turns out I had a zener diode in the wrong way, so if I overcharged it it would have fried everything to Inle and back." Velvet stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and glanced at the ceiling.

"Oh, dang." Ruby said.

"Eh." Velvet shrugged, "I actually used this as an opportunity to redesign the whole thing. Had some free time."

"Oh, cool." Ruby smirked and put on her tier II puppy-dog eyes. "So what is your weapon, anyway?"

Velvet tapped her slightly-runny nose. "It's a soul-stealing demon in weapon-form."

Ruby chuckled. Velvet always said something completely ridiculous whenever Ruby tried to ask about it. Ruby's favorite lies so far were were 'a giant Popsicle', 'an optical illusion', 'the last remnant of an ancient civilization, haphazardly jury-rigged', 'a bass guitar', 'the gospel of a new millennium', 'a pile of photo-transistors in a cardboard box', 'a portable music player,' and 'my boyfriend, shape-shifted.'. Velvet liked using that last one and telling some sort of joke about hilts, and Ruby would always laugh like she knew what was going on- probably an electronics in-joke or something.

(And even though she knew better, Ruby sometimes liked to think that everything Velvet had told her was true and tried to imagine a sort of weapon that was all those things at once.)

"So it's mostly electronic," Ruby wondered outloud, "Because you're always prototyping circuits for it."

"Yep. And that's all I'm going to tell you."

Then Ruby became a degree more serious. "Actually, I was wondering- I was thinking of adding a spell focus to Crescent (I mean, not right now, but I could lay some groundwork today)- so maybe I could ask you some pointers?"

Velvet became a degree more serious also. "Well, it is a polearm," Velvet said. "That makes it easy enough to convert into a particle cannon along the shaft or something."

Velvet scrunched her mouth to the side and looked off into the distance. "Or we could take out the blade and instead put a loop of plasma coils in to make it a light-saber scythe. I've always wanted to see something like that."

Uh," Ruby said, "That sounds like a series of self-inflicted burns/dismemberments waiting to happen."

"Yeah, I don't know how anyone uses persistent plasma-beam weapons without cutting their own arms off. But hey, if you swing it fast enough, you could fling the plasma out of the magnetic bucket and throw pieces of the sun at people."

Ruby chuckled.

Velvet sniffed and tapped her nose again. "Well, instead of going futuretech, you could go old school. Have you considered embueing Aura-stealing runes onto it to steal the souls of your enemies? Steal the souls of your enemies. Cast spells with stolen Auras."

"That's a common misconception," Ruby said, "You can't actually imprison someone's soul into a weapon. It just siphons excess Aura- so it looks like it's sapping someone's lifeforce (and it is, but the same way casting spells uses up Aura), but you can't, like, imprison someone in your weapon like in the stories."

Velvet wiggled her ears and eyebrows, "Actually, you know about sympathetic aura imprints? There's this sick rich guy trying to upload his mind into a computer and he's gotten as far as making psuedo-copies of his Aura in these Dust-computers."

"Yeah okay," Ruby said facetiously and goodnaturedly, "Let met just miniaturize unfinished technology and put it in my weapon. Fragile, necessary technology for- well, I guess I could borrow someone's semblance if it's cool enough. That might actually have some combat potential, come to think of it."

"And hey, talking weapon," Velvet said, "Think of the conversations you could have."

"Heheh." Ruby decided against saying her original thought about conversing with weapons.

Velvet took a breath and the conversation died for three seconds. " So I need to drill some mounting blocks while the pick-n-place finishes my circuit."

"Oh." Ruby's smile faded just a moment.

Velvet coughed. "You wanna continue this conversation at the drill press?"

"Oh! Okay," Ruby pointed at her station, "Let me just put a note on the stuff I was working on real quick."

So Ruby skipped back to the other room, to her backpack her pack, with all the weapons in. She kneeled down and unzipped the bag and pulled each weapon out, just a bit-

"Ok," she whispered, "I know it's like a cardinal sin if you mishandle someone else's weapon, but you guys can sit tight here for a little bit right?"

The weapons did nothing.

"There's never been any problems with weapons getting stolen, and you're all unique enough that you can't get paw without someone recognizing you..."

The weapons did nothing.

"I'll keep an eye out on this door, though," Ruby said, "You'll be safe.

The weapons continued to do nothing. Crescent did nothing, especially,

"OK. I'll be right back, I promise."

Ruby scribbled on a sticky note and patted it on her bag. She breathed and zipped up her bag and tucked it in the corner of the shop. She stood up and stretched her arms and slapped her goggles on and walked out of her private workstation.

Velvet was already at the drill when Ruby returned.

"Yo," Velvet said. She pointed to a shelf right next to the entrance. "Can you grab a tube of lube, to your left?"

"Huh? Yeah." Ruby tossed the bottle.

Velvet finished greasing the drill bit by the time Ruby got there.

"This is a pretty thin mounting plate," Ruby said. She tried to draw a conclusion about Velvet's weapon based on its characteristics, but came up short. "You sure you needed to grease it?"

"Well, you are right, it does depend on the hole you're trying to drill," Velvet said, "But finding out midway that you should've lubed up is just the worst, so I err on the side of caution. I mean, eventually you'll have this hole you want to drill real fast, just quick and dirty, so you fire up the press and go in, finish fast in one thrust, and you're all, 'yeah, that felt great! I should do this all the time!', and then maybe you'll be doing just quickies for a while, some pieces you just need to strap down and yank the handle," Velvet patted the handle to the drill press, "So it might be a long time before you have the need to drill a big, long hole- something you really should go slow with- but it'll happen, you can't build a weapon that only requires drilling quick, little holes- but when you get to the big one you want to just jump right in, but it's one of the holes you have to make multiple passes with, so you lift the drill up and blow the shavings out, but then the friction's building up, and the part's getting hot, and if you go in for the second try, trying to drill deeper this time, the part's still hot with the friction from the first pass, and you go in again and you just scratch up the whole thing- scuff the finish at the very least, actually get some cuts in the thing more likely- and on top of that it's heated enough to deform the whole assemblage."

Ruby nodded. Thermal warping could be a real problem, especially with precision parts.

Velvet paused a moment to glance at Ruby before she turned the machine on. They had to yell a little louder after that.

"Let met tell you how nice it is to have a machine do this," Velvet said.

"Oh, believe me I know," Ruby said, "I did the first version of Crescent with a hand drill."

"How'd that work out for ya?"

"Not great," Ruby shrugged, "I am the worst at straight things."

Velvet raised her eyebrows and smirked her fever grin. "Ah man, all throughout high school, I totally was too," Velvet said, "Every time I'd try, it'd turn out a little not-straight."

Velvet pulled the press back out and blew the steel shavings out of the newly formed hole. This was one of the holes that could be drilled in one pass, but Velvet smeared some machine oil anyway, over the marked point she intended the next hole.

"But then I joined the big leagues," Velvet said, "And got to do rectilinear drilling? It's so great."

"I'll bet," Ruby said.

There was silence for another three seconds while Velvet turned back to the machine.

Afterwards, Ruby got the design advice she wanted in writing (A guideline to follow, as it might be a while before she upgraded Crescent and she was liable to forget after she'd focused on other weapons), and they talked a bit about some random stuff until Velvet's circuit was finished.

Ruby returned to her workroom and to pack and her weapons and inhaled and exhaled. She reassured each weapon as she extracted them from the pack. Yeah, she was looking forward to this now- after a few hours and a talk with cool upperclassmen weaponsmith, she'd tapped back into that motivation, that drive.

Magnhild was in rough shape. Ruby winced as she recalled the fight; yeah, it'd been reckless, but it seemed just waaaay too reckless in hindsight. The barrel needed replacing and a lot of the other pieces needed at least some hammering out. Ruby could oil the revolving cylinder and the telescoping handle. Inspiration struck at some point, and Ruby wrote down a quick sketch of a modification that would prevent anyone's hands from getting pinched in the weapon.

Stormflower was in a lot better shape- Ruby really only needed to replace a dented stock, and she couldn't remember if that one was her fault or not. Either way. Well, she'd replace both stocks, because a dual weapon had to be balanced. Was Ren ambidextrous? That'd be soooo cool if he was. Being left-handed gave Ruby an advantage in some matchups- most people were right-handed and thus practiced against people who were right-handed, but being ambidextrous made a hunter just that much more versatile.

Pyrrha and Jaune had taken a rain-check for their tune-ups for Miló and Akoúo̱ and Crocea Mors, but Yang and Weiss had left Myrnaster and Ember Cecilia here, when Ruby reminded them she'd promised to fix their weapon's up a bit. It was unlikely they'd need them during the sisterhood bash.

Myrnaster's blade was a solid block, with runes embedded in its very structure. The school's Dust-powder laser-sintering machine could probable make a replacement, Ruby didn't trust herself to design a replacement with her freshman knowledge of runes, regardless of how much time she'd spent in the last few weeks learning from Glynda.

And Ruby had only promised a tune-up, so she polished the hilt and handle, cleaned the spell cylinder (it had some used dust congealed in some parts), and gave the blade a single run-through on the electric millstone.

And next up was, ah, Ember Cecillia. Yang didn't deserve a weapon as elegant as these two sweet siblings. Well, that may have been a little unfair; they were close combat weapons for someone who personally wanted to be as close to the bloodshed as possible. The fact that they were shotguns- recoil originating from the wrists- meant Yang had to have good upper-body strength to control them with- and Yang did- so they were good for each other, Ruby admitted. Yang and Ember, Ruby meant.

Ruby did a complete disassembly of the gauntlets- from memory, even- and she replaced two 1.5mm screws that looked like they were wearing out (they were in the unfolding mechanism), as well as two 3mm screws just randomly. She oiled the bullet intake and the unfolding wrist shields.

Gambol Shroud was... special. Yeah, that was a good word- special as in it was obvious that it had sentimental value, in that it was unique, and also in that it looked like it was hand-wrought out of some sort of junkyard explosion. Gambol's blade looked like it was forged from the remains of a broken vehicle- if you squinted, you could make out what looked like an 'E', almost but not quite hammered out in the reforging process. The submachine gun was taken from another gun (Blake didn't really use that feature, Ruby seemed to recall), and its magazine was altered to use dust for minor spellcasting (Wait, crap- Ruby had totally spaced that Blake- and Weiss too! Fuck- had some spellcasting experience. Ruby made a note to ask half her team if either of them had any suggestions for adding spellcasting to Crescent). And, Ruby noted, the gun part was literally welded to the blade, so even if she could find what gun it was and hack it into shape she couldn't easily put it on Blake's weapon.

The ribbon was Faunus make- ancient tribal magic, Ruby recalled. Did Blake have ties to a Faunus tribe? She dodged questions about her past- but the point was that the ribbon was not replaceable.

And if she couldn't replace the ribbon or the gun, then she couldn't' do too much of a tuneup, even though it seemed like there were a lot of little alterations she could make. The handle seemed a little ungainly and after a few cursory runs through standard weapon forms, Ruby felt like the whole weapon itself was off balance a bit.

Ruby pulled out her scroll and texted Blake, asking her teammate if she had any specific requests for her weapon- specifically shaving the handle and replacing the springs for the extending mechanics- just to make sure Ruby wasn't missing anything.

And Ruby took a seat on a nearby workbench and wiped her brow.

And then Blake appeared, forcing open the sliding glass doorway, out of breath and very nervous-looking.

"Hey you have my weapon" Blake sputtered.

"Uh," Ruby said. She blinked. "Yeah, I said I was doing tune-ups today? You said yes when I asked if you wanted me to fix up Gambol Shroud."

"Yeah I forgot my bad but where's my weapon"

Ruby leaned back and picked up Gambol Shroud-

Blake exhaled and relief and grabbed the weapon. She pulled on it. "Cool thanks I'll take her back now-"

"Heh," Ruby chuckled. She handed over Blake's weapon. "You call your weapon a girl."

Blake shot her the dirtiest look.

And then someone in the mid-distance started sanding something. Blake winced at the sudden grinding sound- heavily, her head heaved down into her shoulder-blades and she brought her hands up halfway to the sides of her head.

"I can get you earplugs if you want-"

"No!" Blake yelled. "No, I'm fine-" Blake sunk into her shoulders again.

Ruby tried to give an encouraging smile. Glynda made it look so easy, and Ruby was on the receiving end of one for so many times, it should be simple enough to emulate, right? She tried to channel her warm feelings towards Blake in her smile. "It's okay if the noises are too loud for you.

"It's,- I'm not scared," Blake lied. Well, Blake was probably lying, Ruby thought (and it was weird, because Blake normally was pretty good at masking her emotions). The alternative was that Blake was carefully crafting her responses to give the appearance of lying and Ruby couldn't think of a reason Blake would need a second tier deception. What did uncle Qrow say about these situations again? Well, Taiyang and sigh Yang had always taught her to be compassionate and assume the best in people if you thought they were lying, so-

"It's okay, Blake," Ruby touched her teammate's shoulder. "C'mon, let's get you some ear protection and I'll show you how to mill off any excess material on the weldments and how to critically damp the spring release on Gambol's blade."

"I-" Blake bit her lip and winced at the machine sounds again. She visibly sweated. "Can I tell you something? Something secret?"

Ruby blinked. "Y-yeah, of course."

* * *

Blake dragged Ruby around until they ended up in a bathroom; the one room unisex one on the other side of the sheet metal cutters. It was kind of unfinished in the industrial way; it was as clean as you'd expect a place where people washed geese off their hands and pants, and some of the pipes were showing because why bother to make a machine shop bathroom look pretty?

Blake pulled out Gambol Shroud and flicked some levers on the weapon's dust chambers. A dusty black sphere expanded over the entirety of the bathroom, and suddenly all sounds from the outside were muffled.

"I-" Blake breathed, "Before I tell you, you need to promise me you won't tell anyone. Especially Weiss."

"Ok," Ruby said. She shot Blake an encouraging smile.

"I mean it! I- I don't-" Blake breathed, "I can't let anyone know."

"Yeah, I understand." Ruby refreshed her smile.

Blake slumped her shoulders and looked down and pulled a ribbon on her bow. It unraveled.

Blake had cat ears.

She had cat ears.

"Oh my Dust!" Ruby said excitedly. She brought her hands to her mouth and danced on the tips of her toes, "You're a kitty!"

"NO!" Blake yelled, "I'm a _feline aspect Faunus_. I'm not a _cat."_

"Oh, sorry," Ruby said, "I guess I should know better, huh? But you're-" Why would Blake be concerned about her ears? Racism? Was she ashamed of her heritage?

"You're beautiful, Blake," Ruby said, hoping that was what Blake needed to hear, "And anyone who thinks otherwise is dumb and gross."

Blake gave a nervous chuckle that ended up in a smile. So- maybe it worked?

Ruby refreshed her encouraging smile. "Can I touch them-"

"No! Nobody can touch them!" Blake covered her ears and tilted away defensively.

"Sorry!" Ruby said, bowing slightly, "I'm sorry if I offended you," She shot Blake another smile. "They just look cute is all, but I respect your privacy."

Blake seemed to calm down a little. She slumped in relaxation. "Ok. I'm sorry for getting upset. It's- it's just-"

Blake teared up, "My whole life- it's just been- been huddling against vicious stares and muttered slurs and- even when I lived with other Faunus, we couldn't forget, because someone would always come in needing to build themselves back up and-"

"And when I came to Beacon I thought it'd be easier to hide who I was-"

"And then for the first time I can remember, I didn't get those stares. I didn't feel the judgement and the the disgust and- and it made me so angry, because all I had to do was hide who I really was-"

"And-" Blake looked down, "Maybe I'm just weak, but I don't want to go back to that. I don't want people to see me as a Faunus. Not right not."

"Blake no," Ruby took a step forward and put her hand on Blake's shoulder, "What did you say to me the other day? Everyone has their moments of weakness, but it doesn't mean we're weak people. Just let us- me, right now- help you out a little."

They embraced. Blake shuddered in the hug.

Blake patted Ruby's back, tentatively. "And you know what Weiss says about people like me-"

"Oh! Yes, that's- that's unfortunate," Ruby said, "But don't worry. I'll never tell Weiss."

Blake breathed a surprised breath and relaxed, slightly.

"But, you know, Weiss really likes you-"

"Oh, not you too!" Blake said, "I get enough of this from Velvet already- she's absolutely convinced that if I tell that snooty toothpick what I am, she'll turn her back on an _entire_ life of- of being a _Schnee-"_

"Oh, you know Velvet?"

"I- yeah," Blake said, "But whatever. I don't think Weiss is going to change her mind about her politics if she finds- if she finds out about me."

They talked a little more, about Faunus and race relations- and dust did Blake have a lot to say about race relations- and there was another hug where Ruby had to comfort her teammate, even though Blake was taller than Ruby, but Ruby was happy to do so, as many times as it took but it only took twice more until Blake calmed down.

* * *

"Okay," Ruby walked over to the door. "Are you good to go back now-"

"Wait-" Blake said right as Ruby grabbed the handle. Ruby took her hand off and turned to her teammate.

Blake tilted her head down.

"I- I guess if you want to," She said, rubbing her head, at the base of her ears, "You can touch them. If you want."

Ruby smiled and walked up to the sink and quickly washed and dried her hands. Then she turned to her teammate.

Ruby held her hands out and rubbed Blake's ears, gently and tenderly, from their base up to their middle. She ran her thumbs along their length, taking in the texture of the short black fuzz.

And Blake closed her eyes and purred, deeply. Her face got flushed and she inhaled sharply-

Ruby let go and stepped back. "Wait, Blake," she said, all serious, "Do you -like me?"

Blake opened her eyes in panic "What- no!" she yelled, and then, a little apologetic, "I mean, I do like you- you're one of the best friends I've ever had- but- no, not in that way-"

Ruby exhaled in relief.

"It's just-" Blake said, "Nobody else has done that in a while. It's nicer when it's someone else doing it. Sorry if it got a little weird."

Ruby smiled and accepted the explanation, and Blake fixed up her ears and they left the bathroom.

* * *

Ruby got Blake some ear protection, hidden under a bandanna, which was't actually all that suspicious because everyone had to tie their hair up anyway so it wouldn't get caught in the machines. Speaking of which, Ruby gave a tour- an overview of all the machines. There was the drill press for doing long rectilinear holes, and the programmable mill and lathe for intricate pieces, if you didn't care about material strength. And there was the actual forge ovens and the quenching stations for and a dust engraver that Ruby had only once used and some other things.

And there was a band saw for cutting material and a sheet metal bender and the welding station- you had to take a training course before you could touch that though but if Blake needed two pieces of metal attached, one of the assistants could do it for her. And the electric whetstone, if you wanted to sharpen anything, along with several manual whetstones and different grains of sandpaper, if you wanted to do it the slow way.

And students didn't really get to use the more automated machines- just give schematics to an operator- but you could get a circuit printed and populated with components at the circuit engraver and pick-n-place, or send a tallow master copy to get turned into a base for the injection molder, or get a single blade formed at the atomic level out of two different alloys- one often being spell conductive- at the laser sintering machine. Ruby wasn't quite familiar with them, but those were options.

And there were a lot of specialty machines, for very specific processes or for use with proprietary components - a rivet press for Atlas brand rivets was the only one Ruby had ever toyed with. But that should be all the tools Blake needed if she wanted to overhaul her weapon. Ruby suggested that Blake might want to trim Gambol Shroud's hilt, and Blake nodded nervously and Ruby walked Blake through the process. Blake flinched when the machine turned on and it took her two tries to manage being able to actually look straight at any of the moving components. And afterwards, Ruby showed Blake the spring library, and Blake made the unfolding mechanism on Gambol Shroud a whole third of second faster.

Blake swung the improved Gambol Shroud experimentally, in awe, and she thanked Ruby with a handshake- not just for the machining help wink, and she left. Ruby noted that Blake had stolen the safety goggles.

And then Ruby exhaled, partly in triumph and partly in exhaustion, and she glanced at the clock and saw she'd only used up an hour and a half- and now she was a weaponry mentor. Wow.

So now Ruby had time for Crescent. The more intricate parts she'd designed were coming hot off the machines and there was nothing left to stop her from doing a partial overhaul of her weapon.

Ruby always took her time with Crescent. Ruby started with her ritual exterior cleaning- Crescent really liked that- the denatured alcohol scrub followed by an intimate rinse with distilled water.

And after that, Ruby began the actual disassembly. Ruby didn't have the expertise or the vision to install anything more than a few mounting plates now, but that itself would involve replacing some of the more centrally located plates. Ruby'd have to disassemble her entire weapon. And though it would be time-consuming, the possibilities were tantaliizing- Ruby didn't quite know what that meant, but it left a sort of mouth-watering sensation in her brain and her chest and also in her actual mouth- as long as whatever she made fit onto the allocated space, she could add practically anything. And the complete dissasembly- an intimate look at everything that made her weapon tick (literally, sometimes), that gave Ruby more perspective on the possibilities for redesign- old pieces she'd forgotten that could be improved with ideas born from meeting new weapons or even just having glimpsed in her textbook for Oobleck's class. And now that Ruby had a better understanding of runes, there were all sorts of places she could infuse dust into- the unfolding mechanism could be made almost friction-less, or have situation mass gain for more momentum during swings, for example.

As Ruby worked, the foundry grew more and more sparse. The bustle of machines died down as fewer and fewer motors roared their metallic roars and the steady, soft hum of the fluorescent lights started being noticeable. The scent of oil and ozone and metal grew less intense as assistants cleaned the residue off, mixing the air with disinfectant lemon from the cleaning fluids.

And at some point, the door to Ruby's private workroom for today opened behind her, and Ruby turned around and-

"Glynda!" Ruby said. She put down her tools and junk and tried to wipe her hands on a rag before giving up with a shrug.

Glynda looked around at the tools and the scratch papers and the table where Crescent lay, halfway reassembled, and she locked eyes with Ruby and smiled, gently, with her mouth closed but her eyes bright.

Ruby ran into a hug and remembered her hands were covered in grease. Ruby held her palms out and touched the insides of her forearms to Glynda's sides. Glynda rubbed Ruby's head.

"This is such a pleasant surprise!" Ruby said, stepping back and looking up. She pulled her hands back. "What brings you here?"

Glynda chuckled. "I had heard my favorite student was pulling a long day in the foundry, fixing up all her friend's weapons." Glynda blinked once, "And I wanted to see you, I suppose."

"Well, not all of that was fixing weapons," Ruby gestured to a now-empty packed lunch, "But I guess I did fix a lot of things..."

"Oh? I'm sure you were working very hard," Glynda said.

Ruby blushed at the ground and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Hair that was now oily, oops. Ruby made sure to wipe her hands on the dishrag the first chance she got.

"Oh! Ok, uh, do you," Ruby poked her fingers together and looked up. "Do you want to see?"

Glynda chuckled warmly, twice. "I'd love to," she said.

* * *

-OOO-

* * *

Glynda wasn't really familiar with weapons- especially the modern ones, the transforming ones. She knew that was her specialty in magic informing her viewpoint, but she'd never really seen the point.

That changed today.

"Ruby, this is amazing!" Glynda said. Ruby was showing her the schematics for adding magic to her weapon. Maybe Glynda just never received the rundown from someone who was good at explaining weaponry, or maybe she just cared unduly about Ruby's weapon in particular, but it was fascinating. Ruby was truly in her element here.

Ruby blushed, "Really?" She then tilted her head down and smiled like she didn't want to be caught smiling. "You're just saying that..." she whispered.

"No, I mean it! You're only, what, fifteen? And some of this work is better than stuff I've seen from professional weaponsmiths. You really have a future, Ruby, whether it's hunting or weaponsmithing. Or," Glynda smiled, and her cheeks tinted just a bit, "Even teaching, maybe."

Ruby only blushed at the ground at that, but Glynda caught a giddy smile that Ruby couldn't quite hide.

"Have you thought about applying for an assistant position here, next semester?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know if I'm good enough..."

"Don't sell yourself short, Ruby," Glynda patted Ruby's shoulder. "I'm sure you'd be a wonderful weaponry mentor."

"Well, I just don't know if I'll have time," Ruby made eye contact for a few seconds before glancing away. "I think I might have a pretty heavy course-load, next semester."

Glynda blinked, and Ruby took a breath and reaffirmed eye contact.

"So I'll show you the actual assembly," Ruby tugged Glynda's sleeve with the cleaner of her hands and let her teacher over to the workbench, smattered with plates of crimson, black and silver metal and myriad springs and screws and- gaskets? Was that what the hexagonal bits were? Glynda considered asking but didn't want to seem knowledgeable.

"Crescent, uh," Ruby said, "Doesn't like other people to see them naked," Ruby whispered, "So we have to be quiet."

Glynda stifled a giggle. She leaned her head down, physically embodying the whispers she spoke in. "Ok."

And one side effect to the 'quiet' motions was that Glynda really, really close to Ruby's face-

And Glynda would be horrified to realize and would of course deny all evidence of it, but she zoned out just a bit as Ruby started talking about weapon mechanics, and focused on the remnants of a smudge of grease on Ruby's cheeks or the crumbs of cookies around her cherry lips-

And, apparently, Ruby had widened a portion of her scythe to accommodate the eventual addition of spell components. Glynda wondered if she had anything to do with that but- who was she pretending for- of course she did. That scared her, just a little bit, this tangible reminder of the effect she was having on someone she really shouldn't be influencing-

But Glynda lent her opinions on her academic focus when Ruby asked- Glynda had seen spell casting weapons before, even if she'd never relied n one herself- and was able to offer her suggestions and observations and- with some sever disclaimers- her unfounded biases, which they laughed about. And they gave way to a few stories of a past life from Glynda, a few amusing anecdotes about a past school from Ruby. And Ruby went over the basics of machining – naming the machines again, going over the correct use of each machine and sometimes a little first-hand anecdote explaining the incorrect use of said machine. Ruby kept glancing up at her, expectantly, and Glynda didn't mind giving her student little rubs on the head or a few words of approval each time- especially since they obviously meant to much to her student.

And by the time Ruby had finished reassembling her weapon, new parts and all, it was late- Ruby unsuccessfully hid a yawn- maybe they should call it a night- but it really only felt like Glynda had just gotten here-

"Did you want to test out the new Crescent?" Glynda said, to distract herself.

"Hmm? I didn't actually add any magic components- Crescent's just a slightly differently balanced sniper-scythe, now."

"I mean to say," Glynda said, "There is a small indoor dueling arena right next to the forge, for precisely this reason."

Ruby immediately blushed. "Y-you want to duel? Is- is that okay? People will see..."

"They'll see a dedicated teacher and her favorite student," Glynda said. She stood up straight and looked around. "Well, the three people still here will see that, anyway.

'I-" Ruby moved her mouth soundlessly for a bit, and then "Y-yes. I'd love to." She said formally, but that only lasted a moment before Ruby devolved into youth full giggles, which then concluded with with a breath and straightened posture. She held out her left hand and Glynda took it and accompanied her to the arena.

* * *

The prototype weapon practice room was an enclosed space, all curved edges and safety foam, with three emergency medkits on the wall and some fire suppression systems peeking out of the ceiling. Prototype weapons had more potential failure points, to this room was built around mitigating any harm they might cause.

And it was unused, at least from the past few days. If anything, the faculty would be glad for a huntress and her teacher to take a weapon for a testdrive here.

Glynda opened the door, the fluorescent lights hummed to life sequentially, closest first, their hum keeping the silence, as the machines next door were all turned off and only an errant student or two would even see them, and they wouldn't mind if there was a teacher present.

Glynda waved her crop and the practice dummies floated into storage positions at the sides of the area. A liquid crystal display blinked to light on the wall, registering two auras.

She took her position at one edge while Ruby did so at the other, and then Glynda reached her right hand around her back and flung off her cape, without using magic. It made a fluttering sound as it landed against the wall. Ruby's mouth fell open in awe and joy.

"Don't go easy on me," Ruby said. She flexed her shoulders and ran through some warm-up stretches. Glynda figured she should probably do the same- not that she was getting less limber, mind-

Glynda smile playfully as she rotated her right arm. "I'm going to have to defy you, my girl. I'd like this to last, you see."

Ruby giggled and looked awed, though she prevented herself from making any embarrassing excited noises.

And a few minutes later, after Glynda finished stretching, finished hiding and then recovering from a brief leg cramp, she too was ready.

The scoreboard sounded the starting buzz.

Ruby lunged first, a lefthanded slash. She ducked two bolts from Glynda and got close enough to strike-

Glynda held a curled hand out- not clenched, not open, her knuckles outward- and Glynda's aura shimmered into the visible spectrum, creating a solid barrier for Ruby to collide into.

Ruby held the lock until her momentum gave out and she planted her feet on the ethereal shield, pulling away with a back-flip with a few midair bolts before she landed.

As soon as Ruby hit the ground she started running to the right, circling around the mage, ducking spells. She got into melee range- a feint left, a duck into a roll to the right and then Ruby's feet planted on the ground and she straightened her body in a jump, a twisting vertical slash to what would have been Glynda's back if the mage had't re-positioned herself with a palm blast.

They were locked again, scythe on magic shield, and Ruby twisted to fire her weapon point blank, hoping to overpower Glynda's forcefield and, in retrospect, to create a cloud of cover to jump back into.

When the smoke cleared, they squared off again. On the wall, Glynda's meter had dropped a single pixel. Ruby's had dropped further, but it shimmered back up a little as Ruby regained conviction.

* * *

As the sparring match continued, it seemed that Ruby was trying to do her best to impress her teacher- an extra backflip when she had the time to spare, a few flourishes when they opted to stare each other down as they waited for the other to make a move, that sort of thing.

And, just a bit, it was working, though probably not in the way Ruby intended. It was clear that Ruby knew exactly when she could afford to waste time on theatrics- Ruby never dodged inefficiently when Glynda had her spell batteries up, she never stayed in close quarters longer than she had to. Glynda was quite impressed that Ruby's judgment of the urgency of each moment in combat was impeccable.

And, since Glynda was just letting her mind go whichever terrible place it wanted to nowadays, She was a bit worried – only worried not secretly hopeful, not even expectant- that, in the chaos of melee, Ruby might accidentally grope her in an awkward place, and then embarrassedly stammer an apology- or that she might 'accidentally' grope her in an awkward place and say something sultrily- but Ruby never did. To Glynda's relief, yes.

The next time Ruby closed to melee range, Glynda removed the friction on Crescent's shaft, causing Ruby's weapon to fly out of her hands- partway, at least, before Ruby realized what was happening and adjusted her grip. So Glynda finished the job with a grapple and a few strikes the sent the scythe flying out to their left.

Ruby didn't rush off to retrieve her weapon; she used hand to hand combat, it seemed- not _quite_ well: Ruby was using a a combination of several styles that was surprisingly effective at, with the use of her semblance, allowing Ruby to throw a little punch suddenly and efficiently, even when she was off balance, allowing her to get a few strikes in whenever she could. Granted, they didn't really accomplish much against her aura, but the idea was there.

Glynda recalled that the school offered martial arts classes, and Ruby was still adorably shor- ahem she was still developing- oh wow, unfortunate word choice- Ruby's arms hadn't grown to the length they would be when she was an adult, so her punches would grow stronger with time.

Ruby left an opening and Glynda caught her student in the stomach with a knee- she spun on her opposite heel and shot a palm blast behind her to keep her on her balance and gain enough leverage to kick Ruby out of the melee. Ruby landed on her feet and two fingers, hunched over and ready to spring back, but she didn't. She stood up and walked over to where Crescent had landed and she twirled her weapon into a ready stance as she picked it up.

"I though you were a mage," Ruby smirked, playfully.

Glynda shot a few playful purple energy bolts to her opponent. Ruby easily dodged them.

"Oh, I know how to comport myself in melee," Glynda smirked. Then she exhaled lugubriously: yes, she'd been in a few horrible fistfights with other huntresses in the past- one in particular-

But Glynda refreshed her smile immediately.

"Ummm," Ruby said, trying to sound confident- it was adorable- "I might not quite know magic," then she breathed, her eyes closed, and she grinned, and the confidence in her eyes and smile wasn't feigned- "But I am handy with my semblance."

And then Ruby was a blur, a petaled vortex- Glynda swiveled to her left. She felt the slash along her aura first, and then the rush of air past her air, almost knocking off her glasses, and then the pattering of dozens of soft ethereal rose petals along her arms and side and the side of her neck-

Glynda turned behind her just in time to see that Ruby had twisted to land with her feet on the opposite wall- Ruby looked up and smiled and adjusted her grip on her weapon and then activated her semblance-

And twice more Ruby pin-balled along the walls- Glynda had gotten dizzy the first two turnarounds, but she was adjusting now, turning her head slower, turning her whole body. Ruby was fast, but her angles were predictable, and

But the third time, right after Ruby went past in a supersonic flyby, Glynda heard a sudden ching from behind her-

Ruby had stabbed her scythe into the ground, and with her momentum around a pivot she abruptly changed directions

Ruby extended both her feet in a full-body kick, aimed to Glynda's feet-

Glynda extended her nearest hand to form a force field at the level of her legs, to block Ruby's kick, but when Ruby's feet collided with it the reaper bent her legs and let her momentum set her upright, in the perfect position for a close-quarters arc of her scythe. Glynda was still half turned around and her raw aura took the blow-

But Ruby wasn't finished- with the head of her scythe now behind her she fired a bolt, combining the recoil with her remaining momentum to bodily check the sturdier combatant. They crashed in a messy tangle.

Glynda fell flat on her badonkadonk, laughing in excitement. She heard a roll that meant Ruby had landed in a combat stance a short ways away.

Glynda stood up. A strand of hair fell out of her bun, across her nose, sticking slightly to the sweat. She brushed the hair out her face. She flicked her hand and her glasses returned to her face. She tapped them twice to complete the locking spell.

Ruby had picked herself up and refreshed her combat stance. She was panting, and visibly sweating, and Glynda realized she was too- panting and sweating and a little excited from adrenaline. Glynda's heart was pumping especially hard.

"Impressive," Glynda said. She brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face. "But the fun is just getting started."

* * *

And the two of them lay on the ground, their heads not half a meter from another, sprawled about with their arms out, with their hair undone. As the scoreboard revealed, Ruby hadn't lost more than half her Aura, while Glynda's was mostly intact, but not completely. It was still an accomplishment, though, and Ruby beamed when Glynda told her as much.

Glynda's hair had come undone from its braided bun- a yellow-blonde cascade, a little longer than shoulder length, slightly curly, a few errant wisps sticking to the sweat on her neck. Ruby though managed to look amazing with her hair disheveled in post-battle; fluffed out from the running, the brown at the roots fading into red at the feathered ends, a little like how she'd worn it at the homecoming dance-

"Oh, wow." Ruby said. She rubbed her eye. "Glynda, that- that was amazing. Utterly amazing."

A smile grew unbidden along Glynda's face. "I'm glad you're satisfied. I'm not quite as out of practice as I'd feared, it seems."

Ruby returned her smile, and they lay there until they regained their respective breaths.

Glynda stood up first. She walked over to Ruby and leaned over, offering her hand with a warm smile. She shook her head and secretly reveled in Ruby's heartthrob stares- Ruby'd never seen her hair down, before, Glynda realized.

"So shall we patch each other up?" Glynda said. Why was she suggesting that- it was really, really late, albeit on a weekend.

"Oh! Uh," Ruby said, "I'm not quite hurt. Though if you wanted to hurt me in some ways, I wouldn't mind."

Glynda glanced away and tried to ignore the sudden coin-drop pulse in her let's say heart and the thundering in her ears or the fact that Ruby had chuckled mischievously after she'd spoken.

"I'm a little sore, though," Ruby added.

"Oh good," Glynda rubbed her right shoulder, rotating her arm a few times, "I'm not the only one."

"Oh! Actually, uh," Ruby said, softly, "I know some massages that might help?"

And that was how Glynda ended up on the nearest observation bench with Ruby behind her, running her hand along Glynda's right shoulder, over her shirt (So this wasn't _that_ risque- it was all withing normal teacher-student boundaries), her shirt that was slightly translucent with sweat (Glynda realized that if Ruby were a slightly more improper girl she might notice the green lace bra Glynda was wearing this night-), squeezing the parts she felt tension in. Glynda stifled a moan as she twisted her shoulder into the massage, and she closed her eyes and sunk into the feeling.

And when she stood up Glynda felt a lot more limber and her arm felt warm where Ruby had been touching her.

* * *

Glynda walked Ruby back to her student's dorm, in the quiet solitude of aftermidnight hallways. They didn't talk, and not just because it was quiet hours.

Ruby's hand brushed Glynda's, and Glynda flinched slightly, and glanced around before giving Ruby's hand two quick squeezes.

RWBY's dorm was empty when they arrived,

"Well, I still need to wash the grease and burrs and- and sweat," Ruby said the last part as even more of a whisper, "So I'll be up a little later."

"Aw," Glynda said, coyly, "I don't get to tuck you in?"

Ruby blushed with every visible centimeter of her skin. She stuttered for a few moments as Glynda chuckled, and then Ruby bopped Glynda's shoulder.

"Well, thanks for the evening," Ruby said, still blushing slightly, "And you have a good night, Glynda."

"Of course," Glynda rubbed Ruby's head one last time. "Goodnight, my sweet."

Ruby stepped back and closed the door, most of the way, peeking out behind it one last time before she closed it. Glynda could hear the ecstatic sigh even through the closed door.

* * *

Glynda got two hallways over before she slumped against the wall and started hyperventilating. She clutched her mouth in her hand and let her blush rise and fall for three dreadful minutes.

"I-it was just training," she whispered frantically, to herself, "Just- just normal teacher stuff. Yeah. Nothing- nothing romantic."


End file.
